Get to know: Verdi's Rigoletto

Lyric Opera of Chicago will open its 2024/25 Season with Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece Rigoletto, one of the most powerfully dramatic works in the repertoire. Unsettling and unforgettable, with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and based on a play by Victor Hugo, the piece premiered at Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 1851. The composer brings a profound musical intensity to the court jester Rigoletto, tragically obsessed with avenging his daughter Gilda's honor, and the score's highlights are legendary, from Rigoletto's hair-raising denunciation of the Duke of Mantua's courtiers, "Cortigiani," to the immoral, philandering Duke's "La donna è mobile," to Gilda's ecstatic "Caro nome." This grand and truly classic Lyric production was last seen here in 2013, and will be conducted by Music Director Enrique Mazzola, a much-acclaimed Verdian, from September 14 to October 6, 2024.

When Rigoletto mercilessly taunts a member of the Duke's court, the object of his ridicule curses them both–and the encounter sets off a series of revenge plots that ultimately lead to unforeseen and tragic results. Rigoletto blames the curse for his various misfortunes, but it is jealousy, ill-placed passions, and other human foibles that truly drive this fast-paced operatic thriller.

Lyric's visually sumptuous production stars the sensational baritone Igor Golovatenko, who debuted at Lyric as Rodrigue/Don Carlos (2022/23). He will be joined by two other international luminaries making eagerly awaited company debuts: Mané Galoyan, the exquisite Armenian soprano, as the ill-fated Gilda, and Javier Camarena, the spectacular Mexican tenor, as the Duke. Soloman Howard, last seen at Lyric as the Grand Inquisitor/Don Carlos (2022/23), will play the murderous Sparafucile. Director Mary Birnbaum, a longtime faculty member at Juilliard, will make her Lyric debut.

Considered the first of Verdi's most-enduring "middle-period" works, Rigoletto has never left the repertoire, and is among the most frequently performed works across the world. The jester's almost split personality — he is a malevolent force at court, and a doting father at home — drew Verdi to the story. The central character, he wrote, was "one of the greatest creations that the theater can boast of, in any country and in all history." With the star power of this rich Lyric production, we can be sure audiences will continue to agree.