Rigoletto | Opening Night

Opera Orlando closes its 2021-22 MainStage Verdi season with the composer’s first major success, Rigoletto. This riveting melodrama is a compelling depiction of the callousness of the ruling class at the expense of those beneath them. This original and thrilling production is led by Metropolitan Opera conductor Gregory Buchalter and directed by international stage director Katheleen Belcher, both making their Opera Orlando debuts. Audiences are in for an intense evening of complex characters, an action-packed plot, and unforgettable music, including opera’s most famous quartet and one of opera’s greatest arias, “La donna è mobile.”

When the cavalier and nefarious Duke of Mantua sets his sights on an embittered servant’s innocent daughter, her overprotective father will stop at nothing to exact revenge on his powerful boss. This timely and all too real portrait of a divided society moves seamlessly between the sparkling social scene of the glitterati and the squalor of those who struggle under its corrupt regime.

The production will be sung in Italian with English supertitles, featuring musicians from the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, members of the Opera Orlando Chorus, and dancers from the Orlando Ballet.