Rigoletto © Difusión-Teatro Solís – Santiago Bouzas

After two years, the Brazilian stage director Jorge Takla returns to the Teatro Solís in Montevideo with a new production of Rigoletto. Martín Jorge assumes the musical direction in front of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Montevideo. 

This September 13 makes his debut in the lyric season 2019 of  Teatro Solís, Rigoletto. Giuseppe Verdi’s opera is presented by three unique functions under the stage direction of Jorge Takla and the musical direction of Martín Jorge at the head of the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra. 

This third title of the lyric season 2019 offers a contemporary setting, and this is expressed by the reggie of Brazilian Jorge Takla, “the brilliant theatricality of his music and his dramaturgy make the work so universal and timeless that any time can become the ideal setting and efficient to present it. ” Takla, whose last performance at the Teatro Solís was with Tosca (2017) highlights the “theatricality, ambiguity and dramaturgy of the sublime and the grotesque” that presents Rigoletto “are the elements that fascinate me in this jewel that I have the privilege of staging this time. “

This new representation of Rigoletto offers an outstanding international cast headed by Argentine baritone Fabian Veloz (Rigoletto), Mexican soprano Leticia de Altamirano (Gilda) and Uruguayan tenor Nazareth Aufe (Duke). They are followed by Luiz-Ottavio Faria (Brazil), Eugenia Pirshina (Russia) and Leonardo Estévez (Argentina) in the roles of Sparafucile, Maddalena and Monterone respectively.

Rigoletto © Difusión-Teatro Solís – Santiago Bouzas

One of the three operas of the so-called “popular trilogy” of Giuseppe Verdi with El trovador and La Traviata, Rigoletto is developed on a libretto by Francesco María Piave, based on the play Le Roi s’amuse by Víctor Hugo, a hard critic against King Francisco I of France. The original work had been censored the day after its premiere; Verdi and Piave had to adjust the script against these problems, in the political context of the failure of the Revolution of 1848: Venice depended on the Habsburg monarchy, and the book is clearly anti-monarchist. The solution was to place the action in a duchy that no longer existed.

Cast

• Duca: Nazareth Aufe
• Rigoletto: Fabián Veloz
• Gilda: Leticia de Altamirano
• Sparafucile: Luiz-Ottavio Faria
• Maddalena: Evgenia Pirshina
• Monterone: Leonardo Estévez
• Marullo: Julio Reolón
• Borsa: Santiago Vidal
• Ceprano: Fabián Milkewitz
• Giovanna: Mariela Nocetti
• Condesa Di Carolina Cedesa
• Page: Martín Baudino
• Ujier: Santiago García

In the following link, Martín Jorge and Jorge Takla in an intimate dialogue about the plot, setting and music of Rigoletto.
Rigoletto – Opera Season Teatro Solís

About Jorge Takla

© Joao Caldas

He studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and theater at the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique (Paris). He performed and directed at the La Mama theater in New York from 1974 to 1977. In Brazil, his native country, Takla directed and produced more than 120 shows including theater, musicals and operas.

In opera he directed Dream of a Summer Night (Britten), Tosca (Puccini), Don Quichotte (Massenet), The Rake’s Progress (Stravinski), Candide (Bernstein), The Merry Widow (Lehar), La Traviata (Verdi) , The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni), I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach); La Boheme, Madame Butterfly and Il Tabarro (Puccini), and other titles.

He was director of the Theater division of the CIE-Brazil from 2002 to 2004 where he produced Beauty and the Beast (Disney), Chicago and other works.

He was in charge of the Procópio Ferreira Theater from 1983 to 1992 and is the holder of the title of Paulistano Citizen and Grand Officer of the Order of the Ipiranga.