Rigoletto

events, everyday life 1 Minute

On Tuesday, my neighbor and I went to our second opera of that season: Verdi’s Rigoletto. In contrast to Fidelio, it was a very traditional production, and it was astonishing.

I saw Rigoletto multiple times back in Russia, but like with many operas that I thought I knew, it turned out that we had a severely reduced version of it. My first eye-opener was Carmen, and Boris told me that he had a similar revelation with Faust, and now Rigoletto.

Beautiful. More tragic than I ever thought.

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Published by Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

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4 thoughts on “Rigoletto”

  1. I was there too, and it was great! I liked it even more than the previous production, about 6 – 7 years ago. But some parts were better. Maddalena was better.
    I had to leave at 9.23 to make it to 9.32 train. So I missed the last tragic scene:(

    I am not sure what was missing in the old Soviet production. I don’t remember. Please, tell us!
    I kind of have an idea about Carmen missing pieces, but not Rigoletto.

    I had two vinyls when I was a teenager, one was Caruso’s recordings, and there were many arias and scenes from Rigoletto and Troubadour, another one with Magomaev singing Verdi, also several pieces from Rigoletto. I listened to these records all the time. It was magic!

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  2. I do not think it was something ideology-related, it was just an idea to make operas shorter. For example, there was no talking in Carmen (all pieces where the characters talk, not sing, were removed). With Rigoletto, the whole assassin story was removed. LMK when you will be going to the opera next time!

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  3. Really, the whole assassin story was removed? How did they manage to kill Gilda? My aunt had a book with all librettos from famous and not-so-famous operas. It was in Russian, may be there was the Soviet Rigoletto version? I don’t remember. The book was actually very interesting, I wish I took it with me.
    As for Carmen, I was surprised when they started talking in Met in HD, now I understand why:) I also didn’t remember the whole contrabandists’ act. Was it there?

    I am not going to Lyric till November, but I’ll be at Symphony this Tuesday.

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