What’s On: Italian soprano Scilla Cristiano in Rigoletto at Sofia’s NDK, October 31

Award-winning Italian soprano Scilla Cristiano is in Bulgaria for the first time for a performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia on October 31 at 7pm.

She will be performing with some of the most popular Bulgarian opera singers, including Alexander Krunev and Kamen Chanev. The baton will be in the hands of Naiden Todorov.

Rigoletto’s tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto’s beautiful daughter Gilda.

The opera’s original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to the curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter had been seduced by the Duke with Rigoletto’s encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda likewise falls in love with the Duke and eventually sacrifices her life to save him from the assassins hired by her father.

Born in Bologna, Italy, Scilla Cristiano began her career at the age of 13 in HW Henze’s Pollicino and inW.A.Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She performed these works at Bologna’s Teatro Comunale with world-class singers as M.Devia, A.Corbelli, E.Norberg-Schulz, and R.Scandiuzzi.

Studying both piano and voice, the young soprano subsequently completed her degree with first-class honours at the Conservatoire GB Martini in Bologna.

Besides her dramatic roles, Scilla Cristiano has performed in many concerts, in both sacred and secular settings. Off the opera stage she has also become internationally renowned as a refined interpreter of spiritual music, chamber music and Lieder.

Between February and March 2013 she sang the role of Clorinda in Cenerentola in a tour across Italy and Spain.

Most recently, in December 2013, the soprano sang at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theater in Florence as Adina in the show Il Magico Elisir.

In her latest engagement from January to April 2014, Scilla has appeared as Violetta Valery for the drama I Racconti di Violetta. This production is a new version of La Traviata by G. Verdi.

Tickets, costing 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 leva, are available via eventim.bg, ticketpro.bg or at the NDK box office.

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The Sofia Globe staff

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