Jan. 25 – After his successful debut with La Carmen, last September, Michele Mariotti returns to the Metropolitan to direct a new Rigoletto production by Giuseppe Verdi, which will see Mariotti work for the first time with musical director Michael Mayer. The first performance is scheduled for Monday, January 28, with repeats until February 16.
Simultaneously, Mariottu will be in the shootings for La Carmen directed by Richard Eyre. “I had already directed Rigoletto in Lima – says Mariotti – and I am very happy to open Verdi’ year with this opera. I just finished leading La Traviata at the San Carlo in Naples, under director Ferzan Ozpetek, and this forced me into a pleasurable Verdi full immersion. The Mayer’s show – says Mariotti – is set in Las Vegas during the ‘60s: the era of Rat Pak, one of the attractions that made the city a very popular center of entertainment, thanks to the presence of Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra. This personal interpretation of the opera wishes to highlight the contrast between the innocence and the depravation expressed in the music.” The show will star Piotr Beczala, as the Duke of Mantua, the soprano Diana Damrau as Gilda, Zeljko Lucic who plays the tragic role of the court jester. After Rigoletto, Michele Mariotti will conduct in March Bellini’s Norma at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, where he is principal conductor, and in May he will make his debut at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House in London with The Lady of the Lake by Rossini.
