The first major summer production of the National Opera for 2022, the dark masterpiece of Giuseppe Verdi “Rigolettos”, directed by Loukas Karytinos and directed by Katerina Evangelatou, will be presented on June 2, 5, 8 and 11 at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, in the context of the Athens Epidaurus Festival.
The pre-sale of tickets starts on Thursday 28 April and will take place at the Funds of ELS at the SNFCCin its publishing houses Athens Festival and Epidaurus and online at aefestival.gr and viva.gr. The production is implemented with the support of the donation of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (ISN) to strengthen the artistic extroversion of the National Opera.
“Rigolettos” is considered one of the most popular operas in the repertoire. It premiered 171 years ago in Venice. In “Rigoletto”, Verdi changes the page in his synthetic path and presents a work with a clear stigma and an increased mood for experimentation, as the transitions between lyrical and dramatic scenes ensure the continuous flow of the story with great speed.
The story is about the love of Gilda, daughter of the hunchbacked court jester Rigoletto, about the late Duke of Mantua, who is presented to her as a poor student. In order to avenge the lost honor of his daughter, Rigoletto plots to assassinate the Duke. Discovering her father’s plans, Gilda decides to save her beloved and sacrifice herself, taking his place.
THE National Opera assigned the direction of “Rigoletto” to the distinguished director and artistic director of the Athens and Epidaurus Festival Katerina Evangelatou. After her very successful first collaboration with ELS in the contemporary opera “Z”, Evangelatou comes to face this great work of the operatic repertoire on the stage of special requirements of the Conservatory of Herodes Atticus. Evolving her recognizable directorial identity, Katerina Evangelatou will try to illuminate the contradictory, dark personality of Rigoletto’s character, transferring the story of the play to the corrupt society of the Italian countryside of the 1980s.
Katerina Evangelatou notes about her directorial approach: “The cycle of violence that Verdi describes in Rigoletto is transferred to the microcosm of the Italian countryside of the 1980s, where organized crime dominates. Corruption, crime and rape are the real face of a religious, conservative and precautionary society. The setting of Eva Manidaki -a timeless mansion of the Italian countryside, which hides in it the brutality and darkness of the heroes of the play-, is perfectly integrated in the natural stage of the Herodion, while the costumes of Alan Hranitel complement the image a declining society. “
Conducted by the distinguished chief music and artistic director of the Athens State Orchestra, Loukas Karytinos. In the purely Greek cast, we meet protagonists of international renown such as Dimitris Tiliakos -in the homonymous role-, Christina Poulitsi, Dimitris Paksoglou, Petros Magoula, Mary-Elen Nezi and others.
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