Stage director – Ivan Popovski
Scenography and costumes – Alla Kozhenkova
Conductor – Yaroslav Tkalenko
The plot of the opera is based on Victor Hugo’s drama Le roi s’amuse (The King Amuses Himself). Verdi himself considered the plot of Rigoletto to be the best of all those he had set to music. The score was created in a record time of only 40 days, the opera premiered on March 11, 1851 in Venice and was received with enthusiasm by the public.
The Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre presented its version of Rigoletto in March 2005, and since then it has been regularly appearing in its repertoire. The opera was successfully presented at the “May Opera Nights” International Festival in the Macedonian capital Skopje, as a part of a large-scale tour to Mexico, and at the Mstislav Rostropovich Nizhny Novgorod State Philharmonic. According to Galina Vishnevskaya, «this opera has become the basis for a large number of great singers. It is a performer’s happiness to sing in Rigoletto.