Photo credits: Danny Goldfield
Rigoletto is a heart-wrenching tale. An interpretation of it rests on the titular character being an outcast, someone who is (physically) different. He must play a certain role in society, be a certain kind of person in order to fit in, even though he loathes it, and he resents and blames the world and fate for having put him in this position. He is who he is because he was made to be so. His only solace and escape are the only people who love him despite his being different—his wife (who has already passed at the time of the opera) and his daughter, whom he hence vows to protect using whatever means necessary. For many of us, these are, at least in part, familiar feelings, which is what makes the experience of this opera so visceral and relatable despite the multitude of differences in the specifics. This may not have been the main reason we picked the opera, but it is certainly one of the main reasons we have fallen in love with it. Exploring this portion of our emotional palettes is demanding, and in some sense rewarding for a performer and a listener, as it often takes us to places we have perhaps yet to explore in our humanity. We hope to take you to those places today—to portray the struggles if a tortured, ridiculed soul, the pure love shared by a parent and their child, and the indescribable pain of having your one’s world being snatched away from beneath their feet. In June 2024, we invited audiences to join us on this journey as we embarked upon the second chapter in the story of Pocket Opera Productions.
Funded by the Council for the Arts at MIT.