Rigoletto

08/06/2022
21:00
ATHENS
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
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Greek National Opera – Athens Festival co-production
Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Performances:

02, 05, 08, 11 Jun 2022

Starts: 21.00

Conductor:Lukas Karytinos,
Director: Katerina Evangelatos

Duke of Mantua
Dimitris Paksoglou

Rigoletto
Dimitris Tiliakos

Gilda
Christina Poulitsi

Sparafucile
Petros Magoulas

Maddalena
Mary-Ellen Nesi

With the GNO Orchestra, Chorus and Soloists

Ticket prices: €25, €45, €55, €60, €85, €100
Students, children:€15
Disabled seats: €15

The Greek National Opera’s first major summer production for 2022 is Giuseppe Verdi’s darkly menacing masterpiece Rigoletto, conducted by Lukas Karytinos and directed by Katerina Evangelatos. This highly anticipated GNO production, which was twice pushed back by the pandemic, will premiere this coming June at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival.

From 1851, when the work debuted in Venice, right down until today, Rigoletto has won the applause of audiences in their thousands across the world, and has justly been hailed as one of the best-loved operas of all time. With his Rigoletto, Verdi opened a new chapter in his career as a composer, presenting a work with its own distinct identity that was also more open to experimentation, with its sudden shifts between formal melody and dramatic recitative ensuring that the action unfolds at lightning speed.

The story tells of Gilda, daughter of the hunchbacked court jester Rigoletto, and her love for the dissolute Duke of Mantua, who introduces himself to her in the guise of a poor student. To take his revenge on the Duke for seducing his daughter, Rigoletto plots his murder. On discovering her father’s plans, Gilda decides to save her beloved by taking his place and sacrificing her own life.

The Greek National Opera commissioned Katerina Evangelatos –theatre director, Artistic Director of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, and one of the most promising artistic voices of the new generation– to direct this production of Rigoletto. Following on from her first successful collaboration with the GNO, the contemporary opera Z, Evangelatos is pitting herself against this major work of the operatic repertoire, applying her signature directorial approach with a view to shedding light on the dark and conflicted character that is Rigoletto. The production stars the internationally acclaimed Greek soloists Dimitris Tiliakos, Christina Poulitsi, Dimitris Paksoglou, Petros Magoulas, and Mary-Ellen Nesi.