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Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave
Premiere: 11 March 1851, Venice (La Fenice)
Language: Italian
Subtitles: Italian, English, German and French subtitles (Click on CC)

Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851.

The work, Verdi's sixteenth in the genre, is widely considered to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi's middle-to-late career. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's daughter Gilda. The opera's original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to a curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by the Count Monterone, whose daughter the Duke has seduced with Rigoletto's encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda falls in love with the Duke and sacrifices her life to save him from the assassin hired by her father.

This is a 1982 production directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, starring Ingvar Wixell, Edita Gruberová and Luciano Pavarotti, with the music score conducted by Riccardo Chailly. This staging was shot in the Teatro Farnese (Parma), the Teatro all'antica (Sabbioneta), the piazza in front of the Duomo di Cremona, the Castello di San Giorgio (palazzo ducale of Mantua) and the Palazzo del Te (also in Mantua).

Cast & Crew:
Ingvar Wixell as Rigoletto, the Duke's jester and as Count Monterone
Edita Gruberová as Gilda, Rigoletto's daughter
Luciano Pavarotti as Il Duca di Mantova (The Duke of Mantua)
Ferruccio Furlanetto as assassin Sparafucile
Victoria Vergara as Maddalena, Sparafucile's sister
Fedora Barbieri as Giovanna, Gilda's nurse
Roland Bracht as Count Ceprano
Kathleen Kuhlmann as Countess Ceprano
Rémy Corazza as Matteo Borsa, a courier
Louis Otey as Marullo, a guest at the ball

Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor
Chorus Master: Norbert Balatsch

Wiener Philharmoniker
Conductor: Riccardo Chailly

Produced by Horant H. Hohlfeld
Directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle
Cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis
Production Design by Gianni Quaranta
Costume Design by Martin Schlumpf

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