Enjoy The Royal Opera’s Rigoletto in Aberdeen Union Square

Verdi’s masterpiece, featuring immediately recognisable music conducted here by Music Director of The Royal Opera Antonio Pappano, is a tragic story of vengeance, set in a pitiless world of luxurious decadence, corruption and social decay.

The production – starring world-renowned baritone Carlos Álvarez in the title role, internationally celebrated soprano Lisette Oropesa as Gilda, and acclaimed tenor Liparit Avetisyan as the Duke of Mantua – premiered last year at London's Royal Opera House to great acclaim, opening the 2021/22 season and receiving standing ovations and five star reviews.

Critics were overwhelmingly positive.

The production is Oliver Mears’ first since becoming director of The Royal Opera in 2017.

Rigoletto was performed, and filmed, in September 2021.

It will be screened in over 700 cinemas on Thursday March 10 – the same month that the opera first premiered in a sold-out La Fenice, over 170 years ago – and will receive encore screenings from Sunday March 13.

The ROH cinema programme launched in 2008 and has, since then, brought world-class opera and ballet to audiences around the world.

This year, six major works from the 2021/22 Season are being broadcast to cinemas around the world, offering audiences the best seat in the house for each performance, and including exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, and rehearsal insights.

The programme forms an integral part of the plan to secure Royal Opera's future, expand audiences and help facilitate the vital recovery of cinema domestically and internationally.

Director of The Royal Opera Olive Mears said: "It was hugely exciting to work with Antonio Pappano and to open the Royal Opera House’s 2021/22 Season – its first full Season since 2019 – with a brand-new production of Rigoletto.

"Verdi's opera has remained a firm favourite since its triumphant premiere in 1851, and it is a real pleasure to be able to share it, in full splendour, with audiences beyond Covent Garden and across the world this year."

The Royal Opera Cinema Season will also include a live broadcast of La Traviata, scheduled for April 13.

For more information, and to book, you can visit roh.org.uk/cinemas.

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