On the premiere dates of Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto — February 7 and 8 — audiences will be able to purchase limited-edition merchandise created especially for the new production in the foyer of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.

The theatre’s design team has created a stylish black T-shirt inspired by the new staging of Rigoletto. It features the production’s logo alongside a unique fragment from the set design: a detail from Pietro da Cortona’s Baroque fresco The Triumph of Divine Providence (1639), which adorns the ceiling of Palazzo Barberini in Rome and is now part of the collection of the National Gallery of Ancient Art in the Italian capital city. The image symbolizes inescapable fate, the will of Providence, and the illusory nature of human power in the face of higher forces.

“Our production is rich in visual imagery that reveals the meaning of what unfolds on stage and sets the overall tone of the performance,” says director Sergei Novikov. “Pietro da Cortona’s The Triumph of Divine Providence, for instance, stands for the inevitability of fate, the will of Providence, and the illusion of human power before higher forces. It’s a reminder that once a person strays onto a crooked path, no amount of scheming will outwit fate — you can only try to return to the right one, and even that will be painfully hard, almost impossible”.