Belleayre’s big top becomes the venue for an all-new production of Donald Westwood’s conception of Verdi’s masterful music drama of revenge and retribution. Set in the 1850s, the period of the opera’s composition, this fully staged and choreographed production features a company of 40 performers and musicians.
The artifice of a carnival sideshow, peopled with characters based upon entertainers of the period, provides the backdrop for this ambitious production. Driven by hatred and paranoia, Rigoletto, “the amazing double man,” inadvertently causes the destruction of his daughter, the single ray of light in his life.
Donald Westwood’s English version tells the story in compelling fashion, drawing on both the Italian libretto and the Victor Hugo play that inspired the opera. Sets and costumes will be designed and built especially for this production.
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