Opera Family

Rigoletto. The mystery of the theater
directed by Manuel Renga

Sunday, March 1 at the Social Theater

 

It is entitled Rigoletto. The mystery of the theater , from Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece, the opera designed for children and young people ages 6 to 14 included in the Donizetti Theater Foundation’s Season of Theaters: it will be staged Sunday, March 1, at the Teatro Sociale (5 p.m.), adapted and directed by Manuel Renga. Orchestra 1813 conducted by Giulio Arnofi. Sets and costumes by Aurelio Colombo. The opera is a production of AsLiCo, in co-production with Bregenzer Festspiele and is part of the Opera Domani project. Running time: 1 hour 10 minutes without intermission. Tickets: 10 euros, reduced under 14 euros 5 euros. The performance will be preceded by a workshop (3:30 p.m.) during which the audience can learn the choral interventions that will make them protagonists of the opera: the “Spectator’s Kit” can be consulted on the Donizetti Theater website.

“Rigoletto. The mystery of the theater recounts how, through theater, magic can be created: wonderful and dangerous stories come to life with a simple play of light, just as a firefly illuminates the darkness,” Manuel Renga says in the director’s notes, “We are in the 1920s. The Compagnia del Duca, a group of itinerant thespians, brings Rigoletto to the stage every night, amid joys and sorrows, revenge and forgiveness, until the inevitable meeting with death. With a few elements and the secrets of theater, they transform each stage into a new world, where everything is fake, but nothing is false. The old actor plays Rigoletto, the court jester who, after taunting Monterone, suffers his curse. His daughter Gilda, longing for freedom, falls in love with the Duke, who pretends to be a student. Deceived and kidnapped by the courtiers, she will end up sacrificing herself for love, leaving Rigoletto in despair. For the Compagnia del Duca, each performance is an act of creation and sacrifice, where fiction becomes reality, and theater is confirmed as an eternal art.”

In the mornings and afternoons of Monday, March 2 and Tuesday, March 3. Rigoletto. The mystery of the theater will be represented for schools: 2,272 students are expected from schools in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia and Monza Brianza.

Director and playwright, Manuel Renga has collaborated with the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti on several occasions: for Opera Family he edited the dramaturgies of Chiara o Serafina? Or how Gaetano Donizetti and Felice Romani wrote, in a short time and with not a few squabbles, a pirate opera with a thousand endings (2022), Luce di Lammermoor (2023), Don Paquale. The great game of love (2024), Il furioso Gaetano nell’isola di S. Domingo, ovvero le mirabolanti memorie d’un musicista visionario (2025). In November 2025, as part of the Donizetti Opera festival, he signed the direction of Il furioso nell’isola di S. Domingo.