The opera that cemented the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi's position as one of the leading operatic maestros, Rigoletto, is coming to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
 

Presented by the Italian embassy to the UAE and the Italian Industry and Commerce Office, Rigoletto marks the start of Italian Culture Week. Here's what two of its stars had to say about the show.
 
Once upon a time
 
Based on Victor Hugo's play Le Roi s'Amuse, Rigoletto was first performed in 1851 in Venice and is a story promising melodic richness and dramatic power.
In a dark fairy tale kingdom, Rigoletto, played by Giuseppe De'Ligia, is a jester at the court of Mantua and possesses two gifts. The first is his wit, which he wields like a weapon. The second is his beautiful daughter Gilda, played by Monica De Rosa McKay, whom he keeps hidden from the world.
But Rigoletto's weakness for viciousness could lead to the destruction of those he holds dear.
The story, says McKay, highlights the social tensions and inferior conditions for women in a way that the 18th-century public easily related to. The performance features a total of 10 Italian singers and musicians.
Verdi followed Rigoletto with two additional masterpieces: Il Trovatore and La Traviata, which are known as the "three pillars" or Verdi's "popular trilogy", she says, for their "courageous, dramatic and musical innovation. Contrasting intense dramatic passion, subsequent betrayal, love, vengeance … but above all it is an opera about solitude. In my opinion, Rigoletto experiences an internal severance, a sort of schizophrenic condition," says McKay. "On one side, he suffers the extreme consequences of a corrupt court, and on the other, Gilda suffers from the devouring and egotistical love of her father."
 

Rigoletto is performed on Thursday at 8pm, Ductac, Mall of the Emirates and on Saturday at 8pm, Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi. Tickets cost from Dh160 to Dh250 in Dubai and from Dh30 to Dh650 in Abu Dhabi. Visit www.ductac.org or www.timeouttickets.com
 
melshoush@thenational.ae

Notizia tratta da "The National":
http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/on-stage/italian-opera-rigoletto-comes-to-dubai

Foto di apertura di Giuseppe Tuccillo.