Verdi: Rigoletto

Verdi: Rigoletto 1981 Directed by John Dexter , Brian Large

Yes, the King arrives, eventually!

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.

Country USA

Production Country USA

Language English

Spoken Language Italian

Production Company Decca

Release Date 15 December 1981

125 mins