Michael Mayer's RIGOLETTO Returns to the Met 4/13

Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer's critically acclaimed new production of Verdi'sRigoletto, which moves the opera's tragic events from a decadent 16^th-century Italian court to the glitzy, depraved setting of the Las Vegas strip circa 1960, will return to the Met stage on April 13. Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo, who made a much-heralded company debut in 2010, returns to the Met to sing the role of the Duke, presented in this production as an amoral lounge singer. Georgian baritone George Gagnidze sings Rigoletto, the Duke's world-weary jester, and rising American soprano Lisette Oropesa sings her first company performances as the innocent Gilda, Rigoletto's daughter and the Duke's victim. Venezuelan bass Enrico Giuseppe Iori makes his Met debut as the assassin-for-hire Sparafucile, and Spanish mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera sings the role of his seductive sister, Maddalena. Italian conductor Marco Armiliato returns to lead five performances of Verdi's towering drama. Mayer's production also features the work of debuting artists Christine Jones (set design), Susan Hilferty (costume design), Kevin Adams (lighting design), andSteven Hoggett (choreography).

Michael Mayer has directed a diverse range of acclaimed performances on Broadway, on film, and on television. He is perhaps best known to theater audiences for directing two recent Tony Award-winning musicals, Spring Awakening and American Idiot. His additional Broadway credits include the musicals Triumph of Love, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Everyday Rapture, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, and the plays 'Night Mother, After the Fall, An Almost Holy Picture, Uncle Vanya, The Lion in Winter, Side Man, and A View From the Bridge. He directed the films Flicka and A Home at the End of the World. His television credits include the NBC series "Smash" and "Do No Harm."

Mayer looked to 1960s Las Vegas as a setting that "could hold the universal story of this great masterpiece...a very licentious world where there is an obsession with money and power and sex-where pranks and a kind of trickster energy could go bad. There is this fascination we have with Vegas as this place to escape the responsibilities of our daily lives. It is designed for pleasure; you're not obliged to take any accountability for your actions when you're there. But there are often consequences to actions that get out of hand. And I think that this opera really speaks to the danger and the potential tragedy inside that kind of irresponsibility."

Vittorio Grigolo, who has sung the Duke at La Scala and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, will be performing the role for the first time at the Met this season. He made his company debut in 2010 as Rodolfo in La Bohème, a role he has sung in Zurich, Bari, Berlin, Milan, Munich, and London. This summer, he will return to London's Royal Opera as Ruggero in Puccini's La Rondine and sing the tenor part in Verdi's Requiem at the Arena di Verona.

George Gagnidze made his Met debut as Rigoletto in 2009 and returned the following season to reprise the role, which he has sung at numerous high-profile venues including the Deutsche National Theater in Weimar, Los Angeles Opera, and La Scala. Earlier this season, he made his Met role debut as Amonasro in Verdi's Aida; in previous seasons, he has sung Scarpia in the new production premiere of Puccini's Tosca, Shaklovity in Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina, and the title role in Macbeth. Later this season, he will sing the title role in Nabucco in Palermo.

Lisette Oropesa, a graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, has sung more than 90 performances of 12 roles with the company, including Miranda in the world premiere of the Baroque pastiche The Enchanted Island; the Rhinemaiden Woglinde in Wagner's Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung; the Dew Fairy in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel; Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro; Amore in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice; and Lisette in the 2008 new production premiere of La Rondine.

Marco Armiliato's more than 300 Met performances have included numerous Verdi operas, from the early Attila to the repertory staples Aida, La Traviata, and Il Trovatore. Last season, he led a rare revival of Verdi's Ernani as well as the season-opening Met premiere of Donizetti's Anna Bolena. Earlier this season, he conducted the first company performances of Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini in more than 25 years.

Rigoletto Radio Broadcasts

The April 16, 24, and May 1 performances of Rigoletto will be broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Channel 74. The April 16 performance will also be streamed live on the Met's website, www.metopera.org.

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