Town in which verdis rigoletto is set

One of twelve operas written together by Giuseppe Verdi and librettist Francesco Maria Piave, Rigoletto premiered in Venice in to immediate success. Though they ended up modifying some details, Verdi insisted on securing the material for an opera.

Some critics considered the storyline too dark, but the score was indisputably overflowing with musical hits. Supposedly it could be heard hummed and whistled up and down the streets following opening night.

In addition to his signature infectious tunes, Verdi also characterizes each major player in the plotline with unique music. Gilda is easily identified by lovely, lilting melodies, as beautiful and innocent as she is. Set designer Christine Jones and lighting designer Kevin Adams, who both won Tony Awards for the Mayer-directed "American Idiot," planned sets that include 6, feet of the artificial neon product Neoflex, 2, feet of three-colour light-emitting diode LED tape and about 1, individual light bulbs.

The ladder for the abduction becomes an elevator. Rigoletto keeps Gilda in the tower of a residential hotel. The inn is a strip club out in the desert, and Gilda winds up in the trunk of a midnight blue Cadillac Coupe Deville instead of a sack. Swords are guns. The Count of Monterone is an Arab sheik. While first-act go-go dancers and a large third-act arrow sign were dropped during rehearsals, this isn't for everyone.

Las Vegas — at Caesars Palace? It's exactly what Verdi wanted. The music reflects that," conductor Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, said sarcastically. Verdi and librettist Francesco Maria Piave maintained a French setting when they adapted the Victor Hugo play "Le roi s'amuse The King Amuses Himself ," about a licentious King Francis I, his rape of the young girl, Blanche, and the quest for revenge by her father, the court jester, Triboulet.

When the Austrian government ruling Venice refused to give Verdi permission to stage what the composer then called "La Maledizione The Curse " for the carnival season at Teatro La Fenice, negotiations led to the plot being kept and the names and location changing. Francesco — the Italianized version of the king — transformed into the Duke, Bianca was changed to Gilda and the jester was adjusted from Triboletto to Rigoletto after "Rigoletti ou le dernier des fous Rigoletti, or the last of the fools ," a parody of Hugo's play.

Renamed "Rigoletto," the opera opened on March 11, , to reviews praising the music and deploring the subject. And producers promise an experience more akin to a feature film than a standard stage production.

It's a complex thing to do and will be an extraordinary experience to watch. She added: "It's an enormous production and totally unique.

We've used the real locations featured in the opera, such as the Ducal hall in Mantua, and will be following the appropriate times of day. The orchestral sound is live but comes from a different location so getting everything to work together is going to be very complicated. The scale of the three-act production, which is being made in partnership with Italian television channel Rai, is also suggestive of a blockbuster rather than a theatre production.

The crew includes an Italian film director — the award-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who has won Oscars for his work on films including Apocalypse Now and The Last Emperor — and up to co-producers.