Giuseppe Verdi
Rigoletto, Dario Argento e Macerata

The year was 1977. I think.

I really think, because then, a strange horizon effect makes everything ancient be associated with that year.

Maybe instead it was '76, or '78, or who knows.

The Sferisterio of Macerata, which is not exactly the last Italian opera house, gives Dario Argento the job of directing the stage production of Rigoletto.

At that time, I was 14 years old, and my only knowledge of opera was Zauberflöte. Thanks to Hermann Hesse. To Steppenwolf.

Period. And time jump.

Rigoletto. Two or three years ago, in a dreadful circus tent in a terrible place in poisonous Brianza, they staged it.

I have three friends who know nothing about opera, except that they can't understand the words.

They are frightened by the fact that I know it more or less by heart. And also by the fact that I haven't listened to it for at least a year.

But these are my problems. What do I highlight to them? What do I tell them to listen to?

1. That the Duke of Mantua is Mr. B. Spitting image.
2. That – as Baricco rightly says – today, in 2014, to come on stage and sing 'questa o quella per me pari sono' you really have to be Mr. B. not to be ashamed. (Come on – dumb it down – understand whom I'm referring to, for heaven's sake!!)
3. That Pavarotti, deliberately lowercase, is the best Duke of Mantua I have ever heard.
4. That they should pay attention to Sparafucile, to his introductory aria, to his tremendously low note (he'll hit it. In a dreadful circus tent in a terrible place in Brianza, there will be one, contagious round of applause) at the end of that aria.
5. That – well, I’m not speaking to an audience of opera buffs, there’s a need to cater to the lower tastes of the audience – while Rigoletto sings the very dear to me aria 'Cortigiani, vil razza dannata' (absolute masterpiece, shame on you if you don't know it) the aforementioned Duke is raping Gilda.
6. That it's important to understand if Sparafucile knows or not that the one he's killing is actually Gilda.
7. But I won't tell them (one can't say everything) but I'll tell you, one of the three orchestras present on stage in the first act (which is undoubtedly a burlesque in Mr. B.'s most typical style) plays a little aria that will later be resumed in a beautiful and unknown little choir in Traviata. But these are things that I can't tell anyone.
8. That in 1977, or thereabouts (I have this very strange horizon effect) Dario Argento, whom someone dares say I resemble, at the Sferisterio of Macerata, is given the task to direct it, Rigoletto. And rightly so. Because it's his. There's Rigoletto, who is a jester, lonely, deformed and poor, who hates his master and has to make him laugh. There's a serial killer named Sparafucile. There's a stormy night, and on that night a murder. There's a vile, odious and fascinating character, who doesn't have a name but is the Duke. Silent standing ovation for the people from Marche. Only, Asia's dad starts and loses it. Heads rolling, medieval castles, go to hell. That's what the folks from Sferisterio say, we’ll give it to someone quieter, who won't make trouble, you go do opera (a blatant mess) pretending they're staging Macbeth (Macbeth? No, instead the 23rd opera, which cannot be named? The one that brings bad luck?). However, I - fourteen-year-old - am certain. One evening, it's broadcast on Rai Radio 3. And they say directed by Dario Argento. So, this is my story, just one of many, there would be at least a thousand more about Rigoletto.