Rigoletto

The co-project of the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow and the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

A singing hunchback? Why not? I find it quite exciting to make this character ugly and clumsy outside and passionate and full of love inside, wrote Verdi when composing one of his best operas. His masterly score is dynamic and theatrical and has powerful dramatic personalities. The wonderful arias and ensembles sung by the main characters (Rigoletto, the Duke, and Gilda) and amazing memorable melodies have become world opera hits.

Rigoletto is a classic example of the Verdi theatre: passionate, tearful, tender and evil,with historical costumes and a romantic environment. The co-project of the Novaya Opera and the Savonlinna Opera Festival, Rigoletto has run on stage more than fifteen years, enjoying unvarying success. In different years this production featured Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Franz Grundheber as Rigoletto and was conducted by Evgeny Kolobov and Antonino Fogliani.

The production was awarded the Casta Diva Russian Opera Prize as the "Event of the Year" in 2000.

Press

Boris Statsenko has performed the title role for more than one decade, and though he has long lived abroad, he should be given the title of Honoured Rigoletto of Russia. Not every baritone can perform the strong character, skillfully created by the composer, and a good Verdian jester has been set above rubies in Russia for a long time. It’s not that easy to get a ticket to this performance at the Novaya Opera.

Business online Newspaper
February 11, 2016

Performances of that kind are real labour of love. When you see the declared 16th century, which conditionally shows in costumes, when the whole action is clear, decorative and colourful, and you don’t have to solve the director’s riddles while listening to the music.

Belcanto
November 3, 2013

On the whole, the music aspect of the performance was of high quality, which cannot be often said about productions of Moscow opera houses. And the main hero of this is the conductor Jan Latham-Koenig! He understands the conductor’s objectives with great precision and knows how bring them home to the orchestra and with its help to present them to the audience.

Belcanto
 February 6, 2011

Rigoletto at the Novaya Opera can be called a most singular phenomenon, a blessing for every music lover. Itisoneofthe productions that go down in history and are handed down from generation to generation as a theatrical legend.

Literature Newspaper
January 10-16, 2001

Of course, everyone excitedly waited for Khvorostovsky to appear. Great expectations often produce the effect of slight disappointment. Khvorostovsky is undoubtedly good, very good! He is a star! Hisperfectvoiceis mesmerizing.<...>The main point is that the classical opera is alive and that here is a theatre which can turn it into reality.

OperaNews
December 22, 2000

What we heard wasn’t carelessly mangled mincemeat; it was Verdi’s real
opera — without a single cut from the beginning to the end. And we remembered what the Verdian opera theatre is, with passions, tears, tenderness, perfidy and the human miracle of singing, which alone can embrace the whole of drama.

Izvestiya Newspaper
December 21, 2000