OTC announces new, contemporary Rigoletto

Director Selina Cartmell and playwright Marina Carr are collaborating on a new production of Verdi's Rigoletto, which will tour nationwide in April.

The show is being produced by Opera Theatre Company, and will open at the National Opera house in Wexford on May 15th. It will transport the action of Verdi's tragic masterpiece into a modern setting, by way of Marina Carr's new, contemporary translation.

Of the opera, Selina Cartmell says: "Rigoletto is a gripping and entertaining deep-dive into a nocturnal world of ruthless opportunism, paranoia, excess and corruption. At the core of Verdi's opera is a human story of the 'outsider' offering a fearless look at love, revenge and fate." This is Cartmell's directorial debut in opera. This year, she has been nominated for best director in the Irish Times Irish Theatre awards for Punk Rock, which was at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. It is also nominated in several other categories.

Among the Rigoletto cast are Northern Irish baritone Bruno Caproni in the title role, with soprano Emma Nash as Gilda, and mezzo Kate Allen as Maddelena, along with Brazilian tenor Luciano Botelho and John Molloy. Fergus Sheil will conduct.