Admin

Organization

Baritone

Mikołaj Zalasiński

Rigoletto

Singer

Bass

Wojtek Gierlach

Sparafucile

Contralto

Anna Bernacka

Maddalena

Mezzo-soprano

Elzbieta Wroblewska

Giovanna

Iurie Maimescu

The Count of Monterone

Sławomir Kowalewski

Marullo

Tenor

Krzysztof Szmyt

Matteo Borsa

Jasin Rammal-Rykała

The Count of Ceprano

Bożena Bujnicka

The Countess of Ceprano

Paweł Trojak

A court usher

Magdalena Stefaniak

A page

Stage director

Gilbert Deflo

Set designer

Ezio Frigerio

Costume designer

Franca Squarciapino

Lighting designer

Stanisław Zięba

Choreographer

Zofia Rudnicka

Chorus master

Mirosław Janowski

Piotr Buszewski

The Duke of Mantua

Ho-yoon Chung

Jorge Lagunes

Rafał Bartmiński

Soprano

Hanna Okońska

Gilda

Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk

Conductor

Patrick Fournillier

Gerd Schaller

Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa

Others

Chorus of the Polish National Opera Polish National Ballet

Orchestra

Orchestra of the Polish National Opera Polish National Ballet

Italian

Warsaw

Poland

Rigoletto Verdi

Public

Polish

Approved

The name Rigoletto is borrowed from a parody of Victor Hugo’s play, while the opera is based on an original prose piece (for a change) penned by the author of Les Misérables. The road to operatic stages was long and bumpy: it began in 1844, it ended seven years later. Censorship kept intently weeding out the ‘indecency and vulgarity’ of the libretto, disregarding the logical and dramatic consequences of these interventions. If we compare the starting point with the arrival point, it would turn out that there is barely anything left of the first version – even the names were changed in order to hide the association with Hugo, whom the authorities did not regard with kindness. It had certain, shall we say, rather unobvious results: the title character has no real aria to sing, the prima donna has but one, and the acts break off, say, spontaneously. Verdi’s genius, however, trumped the authorities in the end. The opera immediately won the hearts of the audiences – and nothing has changed since the world premiere in that regard. The Warsaw staging begins with a riot of colours, textures, shapes, flashes, gilding and jewels – I had the impression that I was seeing the tinted Orthodox churches of Kremlin of absolutely incomprehensible beauty and physics, suddenly descended in human form. Well it does not matter, what exactly descended, what matters is that the singing is done in Italian. And it shakes you.

English

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble