ABSTRACT
Rigoletto’s voice fills the air: “No…basto io solo…” “I will do it myself ” the surtitles announce. Sparafucile, Rigoletto’s helper – who was about to throw the bagged corpse into the river – stops, waiting to hand his burden to Rigoletto. The music has built to the climax of revelation when Rigoletto will carry the corpse and discover, in the moment of a parent’s supreme agony, that it is the corpse of his only daughter rather than that of her defiler. But Rigoletto sits motionless in his wheelchair. More than a thousand pairs of eyes scan urgently back and forth between Rigoletto’s surtitled words and actions – or, rather, lack thereof – wondering about the mismatch. Why?
