Opera Columbus and the Columbus Symphony are joining forces this weekend for the most grand scale opera Columbus has seen in nearly two decades. With an extravagant set and magnificent costumes, Rigoletto will be performed at the Ohio Theatre next Friday and Saturday. Opera Columbus General Director + CEO, Julia Noulin-Mérat, joined Good Day Columbus with singers Hilary Ginther and Eric McKeever to give us a preview of what the show will be like.

A Verdi favorite, Rigoletto is set in the rich and decadent Italian Renaissance and features some of opera’s most famous arias. Rigoletto, a cursed court jester of the lustful Duke of Mantua, obsessively protects his daughter, Gilda. But when Gilda falls in love with the man her father loathes, Rigoletto’s thirst for vengeance and desperate attempt to stop fate bring about his own tragic undoing.