Based on the play Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo, Verdi takes us through themes that are as relevant today as they were in Venice in 1851. Why are some members of society treated so poorly and what do we do when people don’t get the punishment we believe they deserve? I don’t have the answers and I’m not sure Verdi is suggesting he does either but he leaves us considering the cost of taking matters into our own hands.
Rigoletto, played by Todd Thomas is a court jester in the court is surrounded by men behaving badly and tries to keep his daughter Gilda, played by the amazing Tracy Dahl, safe from what he feels is a much too dangerous world. This inevitably ends in tragedy as Gilda falls in love with an admirer from church who turns out to be the same Duke of Mantua who Rigoletto watches slink off with different women nightly. Verdi reminds us not to hold on to the things we love too tightly and to think twice before acting and judge and jury.
Leave a comment to win a pair of tickets to Friday night’s performance, it’s a beautiful opera not to be missed!
*Photos courtesy of Manitoba Opera, R. Tinker