Rigoletto's Renaissance — Robert Turner

Victor Hugo's tortured court jester became Italian Opera's Rigoletto through the genius of Giuseppe Verdi and Francesco Piave. Surviving the turbulence of 16th Century Italy, the Mediterranean, and the Levant, he seeks escape from personal demons and curses that claimed his family and friends. Aided by monks from the doomed Humiliati brotherhood and a family of traveling players, he bonds with little Maria, so like his lost daughter. Confronting machinations of the Mantuan Gonzagas, Barbarossa's Pirates, and infernal agents of the Inquisition, he develops inspirational tales for children coming of age in uncertain circumstances and shapes these into Shakespearean presentations for his troupe. This first work derived from a unique operatic character portrays the quest for redemption of an empathetic Rigoletto in his journey from infernal ignorance toward liberating enlightenment.