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from the moment of its 1851 premiere at La Fenice in Venice. Before Il trovatore and La traviata, the first opus in his mature trilogy is a promise of emotion and great operatic moments.
Verdi was captivated by Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’amuse, which his librettist Francesco Maria Piave transformed into Rigoletto to protect himself from censorship by the Venetian representatives of the Austrian monarchy.
The psychological complexity of the title role, at once an accomplice of his libertine master and himself a suffocating father, exalts the composer’s talent. In this tortured father who wants to save his daughter yet sends her to her death, he sees a character worthy of Shakespeare. Closely attuned to universal passions, the maestro transcends traditional Italian opera in serving the intense drama of this story of a curse. The gentle Gilda does not escape the predator, whose cruelty is matched only by his frivolity which bursts through his oft-hummed aria, “La donna è mobile“… By contrast, the purity of Gilda’s feelings (and her vocalizing skills!) along with Rigoletto’s fierce attachment to his daughter enrich the contrasts in the score, giving peak expression to the delights of bel canto and its unforgettable arias. Viva Verdi!
Returning to Lausanne after a 20-year absence, this thrilling masterpiece is presented here in Richard Brunel’s inventive and poetic staging, which moves the drama to the heart of a ballet company, thereby merging opera and dance. The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne will be conducted for the first time by Giulio Cilona.
First performance March 11, 1851 at Teatro La Fenice, Venice
Casa Ricordi Publishing, Milan
Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne
Opéra de Lausanne Choir
Choir Director Anass Ismat
Lausanne-based soprano Marie Lys trained at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and then at the Royal College of Music in London. First prize winner at the Cesti Baroque Opera Competition (2018) and the Vincenzo Bellini Belcanto Competition (2017), she has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Diego Fasolis, Christophe Rousset, Fabio Biondi, Leonardo García Alarcón, Emmanuelle Haïm and Michel Corboz. She has also performed with orchestras such as Europa Galante, Les Talens Lyriques, Sinfonia Varsovia, The English Concert, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Cameristi della Scala and Les Musiciens du Prince-Monaco. She has sung the roles of Ginevra (Ariodante) and Adelaide (Lotario) at the Handel Festival in Göttingen, Dorinda (Orlando) at the Castell Festival in Peralada, Servilia (La clemenza di Tito), Yniold (Pelléas et Mélisande) and Clorinda (La Cenerentola) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and recently replaced Cecilia Bartoli at the last minute in the title role of Handel’s Alcina at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. She has played the role of Bellezza in Handel’s Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno alongside Biondi in Granada, and the title role in Donizetti’s Betly for the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw. She will soon appear in Vivaldi’s Tamerlano during an Italian tour conducted by Ottavio Dantone, as well as in Lully’s Thésée at the Theater an der Wien, at the Bozar in Brussels and at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées under the baton of Christophe Rousset. Marie was supported in her debut by the Migros Culture Percentage and the Leenaards, Dénéréaz, Colette Mosetti and Friedl Wald, Samling, Drake Calleja Trust and Josephine Baker Trust foundations.
At the Opéra de Lausanne: Orlando paladino (2017), La sonnambula (2018), Die Fledermaus (2018), Orpheus and Eurydice (2019), Alcina (2022) and Candide (2022).