© Fabiana Stig

With the stage direction of Jorge Takla and the musical director Roberto Minczuk, the opera by Giuseppe Verdi will address issues such as harassment, revenge, curse and Power in the Municipal Theater of São Paulo from July 20 to 30.

The 2019 lyric season of the Municipal Theater of São Paulo presents one of the most important operas of Italian romanticism, Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi. With the stage direction of Jorge Takla and the musical by director Roberto Minczuk, the premiere will take place on July 20 at 8 pm. The functions continue on the 23rd, 24th, 26th, 27th and 30th at 8pm, and on Sundays 21th and 28th at 6pm.
The opera in three acts, with libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, is based on Le rois’amuse Victor Hugo’sand is part of the popular Verdi trilogy (along with Il Trovatore and La Traviata). Rigoletto It is a sharp, polite and courteous jester who serves the Duke of Mantua, an uncontrollable rake. Rigoletto keeps his only daughter hidden in his house who is allowed to leave to go to Mass. And it is exactly at the mass that Gilda, the jester’s daughter, meets the insatiable Duke (who introduces herself to the girl as a poor student). The courtiers in revenge for the jester’s jokes kidnap his daughter, who will later be abused by the Duke himself. The jester decides to take revenge, but a curse rounds his life and will complete the entire tragedy.
The cast has great singers from the international lyric scene. In the role of Rigoletto, take turns the baritones Fabián Veloz, Argentine elected by the Association of Musical Critics of Argentina as the best lyric singer of 2018, and Rodrigo Esteves, Brazilian who lives in Spain, with several theaters in Europe and who does his debut in the role of Rigoletto. As Duke of Mantua, we will have tenor Fernando Portari, who has played the same role in more than 50 presentations and, in 2019, celebrates 30 years of career. Alternate with him, Argentine tenor Darío Schumunck. Gilda is played by the young Russian soprano Olga Pudova, who recently participated in the productions of Lucia di Lammermoor and Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich; and Carla Cottini, a Brazilian soprano who lives in Berlin and will play Gilda for the first time in her career.
The Symphony Orchestra of the Municipal Theater of São Paulo participates, directed by the director Roberto Minczuk, and the Lyric Choir of the Municipal Theater of São Paulo, prepared by the director Mário Zacarro.

© Fabiana Stig

The staging of Rigoletto
Rigoletto  premiered at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851. A controversial production of the time, inspired by the work of Victor Hugo, who portrayed a profligate monarch who explored his hunchback servant, completely complex for its condition. The work, which had already been banished from the French scene for offending the monarchy, was also censored in its operatic adaptation. Verdi insisted (he even asked librettist Piave to wander around Venice to try to find an influential person to help publish the text) and, finally, he adapted the place, instead of France, the plot would be located in Mantua, Italy; and the king would be replaced by a duke.
According to Verdi himself, in a letter to the librettist, “the whole argument of the opera lies in that curse that also becomes moral: at first, an unhappy father who laments his daughter’s honor is ridiculed by the court jester. In his despair, his father curses him. The curse pursues the jester in a terrifying way. I think it’s great. “
Jorge Takla, who has directed about 20 operas and this year celebrates 30 years of directing alone in the lyric scene, considers the topics covered by thelibretto Rigoletto current and shameless of our perennial human condition. Harassment, imprisonment, corruption, revenge, rape. That is why he prefers to create an assembly that takes place at the time suggested by the libretto: the 16th century. It would be redundant and free to update it, “he explains.
For director Roberto Minczuk, music production director and director of theSymphony Orchestra Municipal of São Paulo, music is the great asset that drives the plot.”Rigoletto was considered revolutionary at that time and it establishes a transformation in Verdi’s compositional style. He continues composing in a less fragmented way and establishes a continuous flow of music and history, combining uniquely the musical narrative with the dramatic action. “
Hugo Possolo, artistic director of the Municipal Theater, “This scenario aims to expand the vocation of this home to the opera, through this dedicated work, a topic relevant to the contemporary world to talk about sexual abuse as the handling of the power of the weapon.”
The opera has one of the most famous arias of the lyrical repertoire, La Donna e Mobile, a melody so penetrating that the Gazette of Venice wrote that even on the night of its premiere people could be heard buzzing through the alleys of Venice. Other musical passages of this opera also made the list of the most listened arias and groups of all time, such as the Dear Name sung by Gilda and thequartet Bella Figlia DellAmore.
The set is being produced in Brazil by the award-winning designer Nicolás Boni. The wardrobe features more than 100 pieces produced with the refinement that the period requires for costume designer Fabio Namatame.

Cast

• Rigoletto (baritone): Fabian Veloz (20, 23, 26, 28)/ Rodrigo Esteves (21, 24, 27, 30)
• Duke of Mantua (tenor): Fernando Portari (20, 23, 26, 28)/ Dario Schmunck (21, 24, 27, 30, 30)
• Gilda (soprano): Olga Pudova (20, 23, 26, 28)/ Carla Cottini (21, 24, 27, 30)
• Magdalena (mezzo soprano): Juliana Taino (20, 23, 26, 28) / Magda Painno (21), 24, 27, 30)
• Sparafucile (bass): Luiz Ottavio-Faria
• Count Monterone (baritone): David Marcondes
• Matteo Borsa (tenor): Eduardo Trindade
• Marullo (baritone): Wladimyr Oak
• Count Ceprano (baritone): Daniel Lee
• Condesa Ceprano (mezzo soprano): Carla Rizzi
• Giovanna (soprano): Karen Stephanie
• Pajem (soprano): Ludmilla Thompson
• Official (bass): Andrey Mira