MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. One of the most popular operas of Verdi - Rigoletto - is returning to Russia's famed Bolshoi Theater repertoire.

The theater will give seven premiere performances by the New Year, and each of them is expected to have the house packed.

Rigoletto is a favorite of the public, the theater press service said, confirming that all tickets for the performances were sold.

The opera was shown in Venice’s La Fenice in 1851, and already in 1853, an Italian opera troupe presented it in Petersburg. The Bolshoi was the first to stage the opera with Russian singers. It was in 1859. Since then, Rigoletto has been staged in the Bolshoi eleven times, remaining in the repertoire till 1989.

The last staging differs from the previous performances. It is a result of collective efforts of the known opera festival Aix en Provence and four European opera houses - the Rhin Opera Theatre of Strasbourg, the De La Monnaie of Brussels, the Grand Theatre of Geneva and the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow.

One of the most popular directors, Canadian Roberto Carsen, was invited to stage the opera in the Bolshoi. It is his debut in the theatre.

“I am very glad at this,” Carsen said. Most people like the opera, but they need to know something new about it. An idea came to transfer the performance to a circus, where the main character - jester Rigoletto - is always in the center of events. It is interesting to look at a work as if it is just-composed. Even if it is 100 years old, there is no reason for it to look old, the theatre director said.