Leo Muscato's Modern Rigoletto Opens at Teatro Regio di Torino

Award-winning director Leo Muscato stages a contemporary version of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto at Teatro Regio di Torino, running in early March 2025. The production, which marks the opera's return to Turin since John Turturro's 2019 staging, features a revolving set of curved, mottled mirrors by Federica Parolini and muted romantic costumes by Silvia Aymonino. Muscato transfers Rigoletto's deformity—now stripped of the politically incorrect hump—onto the courtiers, rendered by Verdi as an all-male chorus. The cast includes baritone George Petean as Rigoletto, soprano Giuliana Gianfaldoni as Gilda, and tenor Piero Pretti as the Duke. Nicola Luisotti conducts, calling the work 'extremely complex to direct.' The production draws parallels between the libertine Duke and contemporary power figures, with Muscato evoking the 'second Trump era' as a realization of Rigoletto's myth. Verdi's original debuted on March 11, 1851, at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, facing Austrian censorship for its 'repugnant and obscene immorality.' Luisotti advocates for teaching Verdi to new generations, warning that losing such heritage would be 'cultural mass suicide.'