Rigoletto

The Duke of Mantua's court is dominated by the idea of love and sexuality without limits or boundaries: "Only those who want to should remain faithful" is the duke's credo. The court jester Rigoletto, of all people, is his greatest opponent. For while Rigoletto maintains the façade of a comically bitter supporter at court, his own fear of his master's assault is revealed after hours. To ensure that Rigoletto's daughter Gilda, "his flower", remains untouched, she is locked up at home. Not understanding that the little child from back then has long since become a grown woman, he turns his father's care for Gilda into a prison. She is only allowed to go to church. When the Duke and Gilda meet there, of all places, Rigoletto's façade begins to falter and he himself becomes a victim of his own contempt for others. He seeks revenge with fatal consequences ...
Giuseppe Verdi's opera, which premiered in 1851, was his first international success thanks to its unprecedented musical and formal cohesion and sensitive characterization of the characters - including world-famous arias such as "Caro nome" and "La donna è mobile". He vividly shaped musical and scenic contrasts into a unity: the aristocratic world of the duke, the bourgeois sphere of the jester or the dirty alley of a contract killer are drawn with theatrical precision by Verdi's music. Karsten Wiegand's production traces these contrasts and seeks the tragedy not in fate, but in the people themselves.