Verdi: Rigoletto

Yes, the King arrives, eventually!

Verdi: Rigoletto — Plot

The opera's dramatic structure frames and enhances the characters. Scenes of magnificence regularly alternate with scenes of darkness and squalor. From sumptuous interiors, we move to a dark street, a lonely inn. The secondary figures are astutely counterpoised: the plotting courtiers against the plotting Sparafucile and Maddalena (also ambiguously tender-hearted). When Rigoletto says "Pari siamo", he could be expressing the motto of the whole work: the beautiful and the ugly can be equally good, equally evil.

• Release date
• December 15, 1981
• Runtime
• 125 min
• Director
• Brian Large

Verdi: Rigoletto — Cast

Louis Quilico Rigoletto Luciano Pavarotti Il Duca di Mantua Christiane Eda-Pierre Gilda

A

Ara Berberian Sparafucile Isola Jones Maddalena

J

John Darrenkamp Marullo

B

Batyah Godfrey Giovanna

B

Betsy Norden Countess Ceprano