Wednesday 5 April, 6.30pm
Pari siamo: power and powerlessness in Rigoletto
On the occasion of Opera Holland Park’s new production of Giuseppe Verdi’s immortal masterpiece Rigoletto (30 May-24 June), ICI London hosts a presentation with Director Cecilia Stinton, John Allison, editor of Opera magazine and cultural historian Fay Bound Alberti, author of This Mortal Coil: The Human Body in History and Culture, in conversation with Opera Holland Park’s Anna Picard to explore the themes in Verdi’s tragedy, with music from Stephen Gadd and Fran Hills.
Verdi’s propulsive tragedy of toxic masculinity and unfettered power unfolds at breakneck speed, as Rigoletto, the jester, attempts to shield his daughter, Gilda, from the court of Mantua and a Duke whose greed for pleasure knows no bounds. Cloistered from the city, Gilda falls in love with a young student, unaware that he is the Duke in disguise. A brilliant score contrasts carefree songs of seduction (‘La donna è mobile’) with a gathering storm of natural and human malevolence. [Book HERE]
For more info and to buy tickets for Opera Holland Park’s new production of Rigoletto click HERE
John Allison is Editor of Opera magazine. He is also a newspaper critic, magazine contributor and has published in many academic journals; a member of several international competition juries, he co-founded the International Opera Awards in 2013.
Professor Fay Bound Alberti is a historian of medicine, the body and emotion; her books include Matters of the Heart: History, Medicine and Emotion, This Mortal Coil: The Human Body and History and Culture and A Biography of Loneliness: The History of Emotion. Fay is Professor of Modern History at King’s College London, where she is also Director of the Centre for Technology and the Body.
Anna Picard is Head of Communications and Insight at Opera Holland Park. Formerly classical music critic of the Independent on Sunday 2000-2013 and reviewer and feature writer for The Times 2013-2020, she is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and BBC Radio Three.