Scottish Opera Pop Up Show 2026
Illustrations created for a pop-up opera tour of Verdi’s Rigoletto, designed as background elements to support the storytelling throughout the performance.
The illustrations capture key moments, characters and scenes from the opera, distilling important parts of the story into a series of expressive visual moments. They work alongside the live performance to help establish the setting and atmosphere, while giving the audience visual cues as the story unfolds.
2026
The opening panel introduces the key characters of Rigoletto: Gilda, Rigoletto, the Duke of Mantua, Maddalena and the Assassin. They’re all facing the Duke, as he is the gravitational pull of the story.
Rigoletto encounters Sparafucile, a professional assassin who offers his services. Their encounter foreshadows the deadly events to come.
Rigoletto remembers his late wife and the family they once shared, offering a glimpse of the tenderness behind his guarded and bitter character.
The Duke, disguised as the student Gualtier Maldè, seduces Gilda at the church. Unaware of his true identity, she falls in love with him.
Rigoletto realises with horror that he has unknowingly helped the courtiers abduct his own daughter, Gilda.
The Duke’s courtiers abduct Gilda, tricking Rigoletto into helping them by blindfolding him and making him believe they are taking someone else.
The shattered mirror carries the emotional damage of the bedroom scene forward, while Rigoletto strikes a deal with the assassin Sparafucile to kill the Duke. Monterone’s anger looms in the background, marking the moment when Rigoletto’s grief begins to turn into a decision.
Disguised and unseen, Gilda overhears Rigoletto and Sparafucile’s murder plot, discovering the plan to kill the Duke. Gilda overhears Maddalena pleading for the Duke’s life and learns of Sparafucile’s plan to kill the first person who enters. Determined to save the Duke, Gilda sacrifices herself and is killed in his place.
Rigoletto cruelly mocks Count Monterone as he confronts the Duke over the seduction of his daughter. Monterone’s anger and humiliation culminate in a curse upon Rigoletto, foreshadowing the tragedy to come.
Rigoletto discovers Gilda mortally wounded and holds her in his arms. As she dies, he realises that the Duke she sacrificed herself for was the man he had hired Sparafucile to kill.