October 23–25, 2026 | San Diego Civic Theatre
October 23–25, 2026
San Diego Civic Theatre
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
Conducted by Yves Abel
Directed by Christopher Mattaliano
Making jokes is what Rigoletto does for a living, serving as court jester to the predatory Duke of Mantua. But the joke may be on him when one of his jests enrages Count Monterone, the father of the Duke’s latest victim, unleashing a curse with dangerous consequences for Rigoletto and his beautiful daughter Gilda.
Packed with spectacular arias like “La donna è mobile,” “Caro nome,” and the stunning quartet “Bella figlia dell’amore,” Verdi’s sublime tale of betrayal, sacrifice, and revenge will hold you spellbound from start
to finish.
Major Production Sponsor
Elisabeth Crouch
The San Diego Symphony Orchestra is supported, in part, by The Joan and Irwin Jacobs San Diego Symphony and San Diego Opera Collaboration Fund.
The San Diego Opera Chorus is supported, in part, by the John E. Ford San Diego Opera Chorus Initiative
Production Sponsors
Dorothy Piacentini
Dr. Benjamin Ramirez and Ross Russell
Artist Sponsors
Angela and Matt Kilman for Christopher Mattaliano
Diana and Eliezer Lombrozo for Guadalupe Paz
Carmen Figueroa Young for Madison Leonard
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Michael Chioldi
Rigoletto
“A powerful, virile and dramatic voice. His Rigoletto gave me goosebumps!”
~ Le Nous Cultura
Michael Chioldi
Rigoletto
San Diego Opera Highlights: Masetto in Don Giovanni.
Recent and Upcoming: Title role in Falstaff (Pittsburgh Opera, Palm Beach Opera); Title role in Rigoletto (The Metropolitan Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Vancouver Opera, Irish National Opera); Germont in La traviata (Palm Beach Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Seattle Opera); Amonasro in Aida (The Metropolitan Opera); Tonio in Pagliacci (Seattle Opera); Donner in Das Rheingold (Seattle Opera); Alvaro in Florencia en el Amazonas (The Metropolitan Opera); Title role in The Flying Dutchman (Utah Opera); Marcello in La bohéme (Seattle Opera).
Madison Leonard
Gilda
“As Gilda, Leonard commanded both delicate filigree and remarkable vocal heft.”
~ Bachtrack
Madison Leonard
Gilda
San Diego Opera Debut.
Recent and Upcoming: Violetta in La traviata (Garsington Opera); Frasquita in Carmen (The Metropolitan Opera, Opera Idaho); Adina in The Elixir of Love (Garsington Opera); Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice (The Dallas Opera); Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance (Opera San Antonio, Utah Opera); Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (Boston Lyric Opera, Utah Opera, The Dallas Opera); Musetta in La bohéme (The Atlanta Opera); Juliette in Roméo et Juliette (Central City Opera); Leila in The Pearl Fishers (Austin Opera); Despina in Così fan tutte (Palm Beach Opera); Marie in The Daughter of the Regiment (Utah Opera); Gilda in Rigoletto (The Dallas Opera, Seattle Opera, Austin Opera); Chrisann Brennan in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Austin Opera); Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (Garsington Opera).
Jose Simerilla Romero
The Duke
“As the Duke, Romero was a major discovery. He commands a sizable tenor voice with a dark glow reminiscent of Domingo and Carreras in their youthful prime.”
~ South Florida Classical Review
Jose Simerilla Romero
The Duke
San Diego Opera debut.
Recent and Upcoming: Alfredo in La traviata (Theater Basel, Komische Oper Berlin, Festival Internacional de Santa Lucia, Bregenzer Festspiele, English National Opera, Nederlandse Reisopera); Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Dorset Opera); Rodolfo in La bohéme (Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Massimo Di Palermo, Staatsoper Hannover, Nederlandse Reisopera, Grand Tetons Music Festival); Ildemaro in Dalinda (Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam); Cavaradossi in Tosca (HNK Split Opera); Lensky in Eugene Onegin (Staatsoper Hannover); Nemorino in The Elixir of Love ((Staatsoper Hannover); Laërte in Hamlet (Komische Oper Berlin); Prince Gwidon in Zar Saltan (Staatsoper Hannover); Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites (Staatsoper Hannover); Jaquino in Fidelio (Los Angeles Philharmonic ); the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto (Florida Grand Opera, Daytona Symphony).
Peixin Chen
Sparafucile
“[They] hit the jackpot with Peixin Chen. He possesses the gift of an impossibly deep and stentorian bass — perfectly suited to the role of Sparafucile.”
~ La Scena Musicale
Peixin Chen
Sparafucile
San Diego Opera Highlights: Basilio in drive-in The Barber of Seville.
Recent and Upcoming: Timur in Turandot (The Metropolitan Opera, The Atlanta Opera); Bonze in Madama Butterfly (Metropolitan Opera); Supreme Lord Laozi in The Monkey King (San Francisco Opera); Sparafucile in Rigoletto (San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Kansas City); Sarastro in The Magic Flute (The Metropolitan Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Houston Grand Opera, The Atlanta Opera); Colline in La bohème (Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Philadelphia); Alaska Joe in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (Festival d’Aix en Provence); Dr. Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love (Florida Grand Opera, Washington National Opera); Doctor Bartolo in The Barber of Seville (Cincinnati Opera, Houston Grand Opera); Basilio in The Barber of Seville (San Francisco Opera); Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro (Houston Grand Opera, Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra).
Guadalupe Paz
Maddalena
“Her voice carried with a liquid beauty — the quiet luscious closing notes were greeted with an eruption of applause.”
~ Classical Music Daily
Guadalupe Paz
Maddalena
San Diego Opera highlights: Title role in Carmen; Frida Kahlo in El ultimó sueño de Frida y Diego; La Maestra Dele Novizie in Suor Angelica; La Mujer in El milagro del recuerdo; Mercedes in Carmen.
Recent and Upcoming: Maddalena in Rigoletto (Ópera de Bellas Artes); Carlotta de Obragón in Zorro (Opera San José, Fort Worth Opera); Theresa Alvarez in The Listeners (Opera Philadelphia); Zerlina in La traviata (Opera Laguna); Paula in Florencia en el Amazonas (Opera San Jose); La Marchesa Melibea in Il viaggio a Reims (Ópera de Bellas Artes); Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus (Ópera de Bellas Artes); Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri (Ópera de Bellas Artes).
Craig Colclough
Count Monterone
“Craig Colclough was vivid as Monterone, expressing some of the most intense passion of the evening in his appearances. His energy punched up the entire opera.”
~New York Classical Review
Craig Colclough
Count Monterone
San Diego Opera highlights: Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville.
Recent and Upcoming: Sir John Falstaff in Falstaff (LA Opera); Title role in Macbeth (Theatro Municipal de São Paulo); Gerhard in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (The Metropolitan Opera); Parson/Badger in The Cunning Little Vixen (Des Moines Metro Opera); Baron Scarpia in Tosca (Seattle Opera); Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress (Opera Omaha); Comte Capulet in Roméo et Juliette (LA Opera); Alberich in Götterdämmerung (Tiroler Festpiele Erl); Der Holländer in Der fliegende Holländer (Göteborgsoperan); Alberich in Siegfried (Omroep Muziek); Leporello in Don Giovanni (LA Opera).
MORE CAST »
Søren Pedersen
Marullo
Søren Pedersen
Marullo
San Diego Opera highlights: Morales in Carmen, Schaunard in La bohème; Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly; chorus member and soloist in El último sueño de Frida y Diego; chorus member in Tosca.
Recent and Upcoming:
Le Mari in Les Mamelles de Tirésias (University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music); Sciarrone in Tosca (Wolf Trap Opera); Silvio in Pagliacci (Opera Idaho); Abbot Cuno in Hildegard (Cincinnati Opera); Marcello in La bohème (Opera a la Carte); l’Horloge and Le Chat Noir in L’enfant et les sortilèges (Chautauqua Opera Conservatory); Morales in Carmen (Wolftrap Opera); Tarquinius in The Rape Lucretia (Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music); Dr. Rappaccini in La hija de Rappaccini (Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music).
Adam Caughey
Matteo Borsa
Adam Caughey
Matteo Borsa
San Diego Opera highlights: Benvolio in Romèo et Juliette; tenor in Making Merry: A Choral Holiday Celebration; San Diego Opera Core Chorus member.
Recent and Upcoming: Guglielmo in Viva la Mamma! (Opera a la Carte); Thomas Jefferson in 1776 the Musical (Utah Opera and Musical Theatre); title role in Orpheus in the Underworld (Opera a la Carte); Rodolfo in La bohème (Opera a la Carte); Alfredo in La traviata (Fortissimo Collective San Diego); Harlekin in The Emperor of Atlantis (IN Series); Tamino in The Magic Flute (Maryland Summer Institute); Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance (Opera Camerata); title role in Albert Herring (Opera Vivente); title role in Peter Quint (Peabody Opera Theatre); Normanno in Lucia di Lamermoor (Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival).
Travis Sherwood
Count Ceprano
Travis Sherwood
Count Ceprano
San Diego Opera highlights: Baron Douphol in La traviata, A Cappadocian and First Nazarene in Salome.
Recent and Upcoming: Morales in Carmen (Amarillo Opera), Betto di Signa in Gianni Schicchi (Amarillo Opera), Schaunard in La bohème (Opera à la Carte), Reverend Olin Blitch in Susannah (Harrower Summer Opera), Marcello in La bohème (Mississippi Opera), Baritone Soloist for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (SDSU Symphony), Bass Soloist for Handel’s Messiah (La Jolla Symphony), Bass Soloist for Rossini’s Stabat Mater (La Jolla Symphony).
Emily Weinberg
Giovanna
Emily Weinberg
Giovanna
San Diego Opera highlights: Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, La Conversa II in Suor Angelica.
Recent and Upcoming: Title role in Carmen (Pacific Lyric Association); Toledo in The Falling and the Rising (Bodhi Tree Concerts); Title role in Cinderella, Third Lady in The Magic Flute and Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus (Pacific Symphony); Zosia in Two Remain, and Mercedes in Carmen (Lyric Opera of Orange County).
Maya Goell
Countess Ceprano
Maya Goell
Countess Ceprano
San Diego Opera Debut
Recent and Upcoming:
Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (Genesis Opera Theater); Poncho Rabbit in Poncho Rabbit and the Coyote (Bodhi Tree Concerts); Diana in Orpheus in the Underworld (Opera á la Carte); Billie in Hello Star (Opera Paralléle); La Feau in L’Enfant et les Sortileges (San Francisco Conservatory of Music Opera Theater); Meg March in Little Women (San Francisco Conservatory of Music Opera Theater); Mrs Pasekova in The Cunning Little Vixen (Chautauqua Opera Conservatory); Maria Bertram in Mansfield Park (University of British Columbia Opera); Yvette in Pasażerka (University of British Columbia Opera).
Lisa Parente
A Page
Lisa Parente
A Page
San Diego Opera highlights: Soprano in Making Merry: A Choral Holiday Celebration
Recent and Upcoming:
Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (Manhattan Opera Studio); Belinda in Dido and Aeneas (San Diego State University Opera); Cupid in Orpheus in the Underworld (Opera à La Carte); Madame Goldentrill in The Impresario (Genesis Opera Theater); The Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel (Peabody Conservatory Opera); and Amore in L ’incoronazione di Poppea (Harrower Summer Opera).
Yves Abel
Conductor
"One has to say it very clearly and often. The presence of Yves Abel in the pit is a luxury. The work that Abel realizes with each new appearance is intense and the results impeccable from start to finish."
~La Nueva España
Yves Abel
Conductor
San Diego Opera Highlights: San Diego Opera Principal Conductor, 2020-present. Conductor – The Daughter of the Regiment; Pagliacci; Madama Butterfly; Carmen; Roméo et Juliette; Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi; Don Giovanni; Salome; La traviata, The Barber of Seville.
Recent and Upcoming: Chief Conductor – Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, 2005 to 2021; Principal Guest Conductor – Deutsche Oper Berlin, 2005 to 2013; Conductor – Carmen (Royal Sweden Opera, Wiener Staatsoper); Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (Opéra Nice Côte d’Azur); Roméo et Juliette (Canadian Opera Company); Turandot (Savonlinna Opera Festival); Dialogues des Carmélites (Teatro Regio Turin); La Damnation de Faust (Opernhaus Zürich); La fille du régiment (London’s Royal Opera Covent Garden); Armida (Rossini Opera Festival).
Christopher Mattaliano
Director
"There was much to admire in Christopher Mattaliano’s staging, especially in how effectively he used minimal sets and props."
~Parterre Box on Pagliacci
Christopher Mattaliano
Director
San Diego Highlights: Director for Pagliacci.
Recent and upcoming: Stage Director – La bohème (Yale School of Music); Il trovatore (Opera Colorado); Tosca (New Orleans Opera); Anna Bolena (The Academy of Vocal Arts); The Barber of Seville (Cincinnati Opera, The Dallas Opera, Portland Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre); Rigoletto (Opera Colorado, Portland Opera); Pagliacci (Portland Opera); The Magic Flute (Washington National Opera, Portland Opera); Cinderella (Portland Opera); Candide (Arizona Opera); Macbeth (New Orleans Opera); Falstaff (Portland Opera).
Scenic Design
Robert Dahlstrom
Lighting Design
Jason Bieber
Costume Design
Jane Greenwood
Hair and Makeup Design
Peter Herman
Resident Conductor/Chorus Master
Bruce Stasyna
Assistant Director
Nicolas Garcia
Costume Director
Christine Joly de Lotbiniere
Intimacy Director
Sierra Pia
Fight Director
Benjamin Cole
Diction Coach
Emanuela Patroncini
Stage Manager
Peter Nictakis
Supertitle Caller
Abigail Allwein
Assistant Stage Managers
Indy Caramelli, Lucy Guillemette
Musical Preparation
Catherine Miller
Production Assistant
Claire Hurd
Rigoletto almost didn’t premiere
Verdi found his story in Victor Hugo’s Le roi s’amuse (1832) — a French play so incendiary that the government shut it down after a single performance and banned it from their stages for the next fifty years.
But Verdi wrote to his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, that Hugo’s play was “perhaps the greatest drama of modern times,” and that its jester, Triboulet, was “a creation worthy of Shakespeare.”
So, Verdi and Piave moved the action from the French court to a defunct Italian dukedom, demoted a king to a duke, and renamed nearly every character — Triboulet became Rigoletto, Blanche became Gilda, Saltabadil became Sparafucile. Even the title went: Verdi’s working title was La maledizione, “The Curse.”
Rigoletto was a court jester
Rigoletto’s real-life inspiration was Triboulet, born Nicolas Ferrial in 1479, the court jester to France’s King Francis I.
Legend claims that Triboulet slapped the king and was sentenced to death, but he got to select his execution method. Triboulet chose: old age.
When Austrian censors proposed that Rigoletto should be neither ugly nor hunchbacked, Verdi wrote to the president of La Fenice on December 14, 1850, and refused to make the changes. He said that a character outwardly deformed, but inwardly consumed by love, was the whole reason he’d wanted the story. And, if they took it away, he could not write the music.
Verdi won that fight.
The tune Verdi wouldn't let anyone hear
In Act Three, the Duke has a signature number, and it’s the most famous tune in the opera: “La donna è mobile” (woman is fickle) is a jaunty little song about how capricious women supposedly are. The irony being that the Duke — a serial womanizer— is the most mercurial person on the stage.
Verdi knew exactly how catchy he’d made it, so he refused to let anyone hear it early. He handed the music to his tenor, Raffaele Mirate, only in the final rehearsals, and made him promise: no humming it in the hallway, no whistling it on the street!
Mirate’s performance was billed as the highlight of the evening, and by the next morning Venetians were singing the tune in the streets. Even the local gondoliers adopted it.
“La donna è mobile” escaped the opera house almost immediately, and almost 200 years later, is still one of opera’s catchiest tunes, showing up in movies, television, and advertisements. Here are just a few recent examples.
Grand Theft Auto III, the 2001 video game, includes “La donna è mobile” alongside Mozart, Donizetti, and La traviata‘s “Libiamo.” The music has been used in commercials for decades, most persistently in European frozen-pizza campaigns. Supporters across Europe have set chants to the melody — AS Roma’s fans among them, with “Vogliamo vincere e vinceremo, fino alla morte combatteremo”(“We want to win and we will win, until death we will fight”).
Alvin and the Chipmunks have taken a run at it. Even Sting wanted in on this terrific tune!
Four people, four feelings, one moment
If “La donna è mobile” is the opera’s earworm, the Act Three quartet — “Bella figlia dell’amore” — is its engineering marvel.
The staging splits the audience’s attention: both inside the tavern and outside. Four characters, with four different melodic lines and four completely incompatible emotional states — all somehow locking into a single piece of music.
Victor Hugo himself is said to have admired Verdi’s Rigoletto for something impossible in spoken plays.
Verdi’s astonishing three years
Rigoletto launched what’s often called Verdi’s trilogy: Rigoletto in 1851, then Il Trovatore and La traviata, both in 1853. Three operas in three years, all three still core repertoire nearly two centuries on and cemented his fame as a master of the art form. If you’re new to Verdi, Rigoletto is the perfect starting point.
It has since been staged countless times, ranking in the top ten most-produced operas, according to Operabase.
San Diego Opera first staged Rigoletto in October 1968 — the company’s fifth season — with British baritone Peter Glossop in the title role, Anne Elgar as Gilda, and Walter Herbert conducting. It has returned in 1978, 1987, 1994, 2002, 2009, and most recently 2019. October 2026 will be our eighth visit with the jester!
The Multiple Universes of Rigoletto
While Verdi took the story from France to Italy, directors have placed this tale all over the world — and out of it!
The Met’s Las Vegas Rigoletto.
Director Michael Mayer’s 2013 Metropolitan Opera production relocated the court to a 1960 Las Vegas casino. The Duke became a Rat Pack lounge singer; Rigoletto was a world-weary casino comic; Gilda died in the trunk of a Cadillac. It was broadcast in the Met’s Live in HD series and divided audiences loudly.
The 1982 Jonathan Miller’s English National Opera production set the opera in 1950s Little Italy, New York.
Planet of the Apes? In February 2005, Doris Dörrie staged Rigoletto on the Planet of the Apes at the Bavarian State Opera, with Zubin Mehta in the pit and the Duke in a monkey suit. Opernwelt‘s annual critics’ poll named it “Ärgernis der Saison” — annoyance of the season.
In September 2010, Italian broadcaster RAI produced “Rigoletto a Mantova” — the opera filmed live in Mantua itself, in the real locations and at the actual hours specified in the libretto. Plácido Domingo sang the title role, Zubin Mehta conducted, Marco Bellocchio directed, and Vittorio Storaro — the cinematographer of Apocalypse Now — shot it.
Note: Selections below will play a preview of the song. To play the full track, sign up for a free Spotify account and access this playlist, or other playlists by following SanDiegoOpera.
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