NEON-LIT RIGOLETTO TO BE BROADCAST LIVE FROM THE MET IN HD FEBRUARY 16TH

Damariscotta, Maine - A new production of, Rigoletto, one of Verdi’s most popular operas will be broadcast from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera on February 16th at 1pm when the Lincoln Theater continues its season of Live from the Met in HD.  The production, by Tony Award-winner Michael Mayer, takes place not in 16th century Mantua, Italy, as originally written, but in Las Vegas, during the 1960s.  And the philandering Duke and his court jester, Rigoletto are not from the Ducal Palace, but are Vegas figures from the “Rat Pack”.   The AP said in its opening night review, “Sin City Duke: Metropolitan Opera moves Verdi's `Rigoletto' to light-splashed Las Vegas”.

Rigoletto was first performed in 1851 at La Fenice in Venice, and was an immediate success.    Some of its arias are as well-known as popular songs: “La donna e mobile”, “Caro nome”, and “Questo o quella” will be familiar to even non-opera lovers.  In this modern-day version of the heartbreaking story, the three leading roles are sung by Željko Lučić (2009’s Macbeth), one of the world’s great Rigolettos; Diana Damrau (Countess Adèle in 2010’s Le Comte Ory), an internationally acclaimed Gilda; and the fast-rising lyric tenor Piotr Beczala (the Chevalier des Grieux in last season’s Manon, Edgardo in 2009’s Lucia di Lammermoor)
as the Duke.  Michele Mariotti will conduct.

This is not the first time the setting of Rigoletto has been updated: it was once set in New York City’s Little Italy, with characters from the Mafia; and once set on the Planet of the Apes.  So Las Vegas and its wheeler-dealers is not such a stretch.

The opera, in three acts, chronicles the love of Rigoletto for his daughter, Gilda, and how his passion to protect her led eventually, to her death.  And the amoral Duke whom Rigoletto wanted to kill, survives to sing and lust after women again.  In addition to the well-known arias, the opera has – in the final act – one of the most extraordinary quartets ever written for voice.

After the first-night performance, critics were uniform in their excitement over the production and the performances.  Bloomberg News said, “It's impossible not to like the new production. It's wildly entertaining, inventive, strangely funny and yet also deeply sad… Michael Mayer captures both the emotional depth and surface glitter in an audacious staging…. The audience whooped approval at the end"

And The Wall Street Journal noted, "A very different take… the shift works very well, giving a contemporary immediacy to this tale of how power and vice corrupt everything around them… Eye-popping sets… brilliant costumes… The strong cast of principals carries out the concept with gusto… Diana Damrau is a stunning Gilda… As the Duke, Piotr Beczala displays a big, beautiful tenor with great presence"

The next opera in this series will be Richard Wagner’s Parsifal to be broadcast on March 2 at noon.  Tickets for this and other Live from the Met in HD are available from the Lincoln Theater. Tickets are $24 adult, $22 senior with $2 discount for members. Youth 18 and under are $5