Rigoletto

Nicolas Ferrial, the prototype of Victor Hugo’s Triboulet (Le roi s’amuse) and Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, is the protagonist of one of the most delightful historical anecdotes ever recorded and one that proves that humour, particularly of the court jester variety, can actually save lives. An accomplished merryman of Louis XII and his successor Francis I, Triboulet lost his king’s interest and was sentenced to death for a trivial reason. Yet, in a spirit of clemency, the monarch allowed the old servant to choose the way of his death. The jester decided to die of… old age. Bound by his word, instead of having the jester killed, Francis I sent him into exile. When writing his play in the 1830s, Hugo seemed to have been fascinated by tragic hunchbacks: not only has he made his Triboulet a cripple, he also made him suffer the fate of Job. The play tarnished the king’s reputation, portraying him as a spendthrift and sex addict, and so the then minister of ‘public morals and propriety’ (officially, the minister of public affairs) banned the piece instantly after the opening night (this is how short-lived the ban on censorship introduced in France after the July Revolution proved to be). Before the play returned to theatres half a century later, the pitiful jester shot to fame thanks to Giuseppe Verdi and what turned out to be his operatic evergreen. Paradoxically, although Rigoletto is an opera tragica, its two most famous arias, La donna è mobile and Caro nome are written in major key. Curzio Malaparte was right to compare Verdi’s music to Lambrusco wine, which is a semi-dry, red, and sparkling.

Conductor

Patrick Fournillier

Director

Gilberto Deflo

Set Designer

Ezio Frigerio

Costume Designer

Franca Squarciapino

Choreography

Zofia Rudnicka

Lighting Designer

Stanisław Zięba

Chorus Master

Mirosław Janowski