About the opera
- Run time: 2hrs 40min, 1 intermission
- Sung in: Italian
- Subtitles: English, Italian and other languages
- Opera House: Vienna State Opera
Rigoletto was the opera that founded Verdi's international reputation: within ten years it had been staged in some 250 opera houses around the world. The catchy tenor aria, "La Donna è mobile", certainly helped spread its fame, but it is also sustained by a daring plot, one that Venetian censors only accepted after two revisions. The story, based on a controversial play by Victor Hugo, tells of an outsider—a hunchbacked jester—who struggles to balance the dueling elements of beauty and evil that exist in his life. Written during the most fertile period of Verdi’s artistic life, the opera resonates with a universality that is frequently called Shakespearean.
Ticket information
- Select a date an book
- E-Ticket (Print@home)
Vienna State Opera
Opernring 2, 1010 Vienna View in Google Maps
How to get there:
Undreground: U1,U2,U4 - Stop at Karlsplatz
Trams: 1,2,D,62,71 - Stop at Opernring
Conductor: Carlo Rizzi
Duke of Mantua: Dmitry Korchak
Rigoletto: Amartuvshin Enkhbat
Gilda: Nina Minasyan
Sparafucile: Ivo Stanchev
Maddalena: Monika Bohinec
Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901) is the preeminent Italian opera composer of the 19th century. His works remain immensely popular today, and are at the core of the opera repertoire.
The libretto by Francesco Maria Piave (1810–1876), Verdi’s principal librettist of the period, is closely based on Victor Hugo’s controversial play Le roi s'amuse ("The king amuses himself").
