NEW YORK – Stefan Szkafarowsky, a renowned international bass is contracted with New York’s Metropolitan Opera to perform the role of Count Monterone from October 20 to November 19.
Count Monterone sets the plot for Giuseppe Verdi’s renowned opera “Rigoletto.” As the opera opens in a modern Las Vegas casino setting, the gritty and totally despicable Duke of Mantua, who has his way with innocent women, boasts of his prowess and of his latest conquest. Count Monterone learns that it is his daughter that the duke has seduced. Monterone confronts the duke, denounces him and demands the return of his daughter. Rigoletto, a hunchbacked court jester, aids the duke in finding new conquests. He publicly ridicules and cruelly mocks Count Monterone. Rigoletto assists in the count’s removal from court.
It is then that Count Monterone, enraged by the vicious behavior of Rigoletto, who himself has a daughter, calls down a father’s curse on him. With this, the stage is set for a dramatic opera filled with love, deception, vengeance, murder and a surprise twist at the finale.
Tickets for any of these 10 performances can be purchased at the Metropolitan box office or online at https://www.metopera.org/Season/2015-16-Season/rigoletto-verdi-tickets/.