Oper im Steinbruch 2027: Rigoletto
In the 2027 season, one of Giuseppe Verdi’s most beloved operas returns to the St. Margarethen Quarry Opera. The rugged rocky landscape of the quarry provides a breathtaking backdrop for Verdi’s masterpiece.
The story of the court jester Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda is as gripping as a mystery novel and as tragic as almost any other opera plot. Rigoletto is the court jester to the Duke of Mantua, a notorious womanizer. The jester constantly mocks the Duke’s victims—their cuckolded husbands and horrified fathers—humiliating them with biting sarcasm. The Count of Monterone, father of one of the Duke’s victims, curses the jester for his malice. And when Rigoletto then suggests to the courtiers that they kidnap Count Ceprano’s wife for the Duke, they are horrified and seek to teach the malicious jester a lesson. Instead, they kidnap Rigoletto’s supposed mistress, who is in fact his daughter. The court jester searches for his daughter Gilda and finds her at court. She confesses to having been seduced by the Duke. The jester, now seeing his own daughter stripped of her honor, resolves to have the Duke murdered. Sparafucile, the assassin hired by Rigoletto, tragically stabs Gilda to death, however, as she—driven by naive love—attempts to save the Duke. Thus, the curse of the Count of Monterone is finally fulfilled.
