Rigoletto

Melodramma in Three Acts (1851) Music by Giuseppe Verdi Text by Francesco Maria Piave after Victor Hugo When Victor Hugo first and lastly presented his play Le roi s’amuse on stage in 1832, the performance ended with the immediate ban of the play. When Giuseppe Verdi, the composer of the Italian Risorgimento, attempted to set the play of the revolutionary-minded French writer to music, he also encountered resistance from the censorship authorities. Verdi had to rename his Melodramma from La maledizione (The Curse) to Rigoletto and relocate the setting from a real historical context to a fictional court of a Duke of Mantua. However, he left the plot and its harshness untouched: Rigoletto incites the licentious Duke to constant abductions and seductions of beautiful women and has nothing but scorn for their families. The father of one of the dishonored women curses him before the entire court. However, Gilda, Rigoletto's daughter, keeps her from his shameless behavior hidden. Nevertheless, the Duke has already cast his eye on her. When Gilda succumbs to the advances of the Duke, Rigoletto devises a deadly revenge plan, which ultimately does not result in the death of the Duke but his own daughter. The cynical motif of failure becomes the well-known tenor aria “La donna è mobile”. In Verdi's first work of maturity, the trivial and grotesque are intertwined with high pathos. The contrasts between brash band music and expressive cantilenas form a relentless masterpiece that strikes the audience with great brevity and sharpness. External Content To protect your privacy, we do not automatically load the external content 'Trailer Rigoletto'. When you load external content, personal data may be transferred to the respective third-party provider. For more information, see our Privacy Policy . During one of his lavish parties, the Duke tells courtier Borsa about a beautiful, bourgeois unknown woman whom he has taken notice of. However, the Duke first plunges into the party chaos and sets his sights on the also desired Countess Ceprano. Court jester Rigoletto cruelly dismisses Count Ceprano, her husband, in the meantime. Meanwhile, Marullo tells the other courtiers about his discovery that Rigoletto is maintaining a secret love affair. To gain access to the Countess, Rigoletto advises the Duke to simply execute Ceprano – a cynical suggestion that the Duke takes with humor, for which Ceprano and the other courtiers seek revenge against Rigoletto. Suddenly, Count Monterone storms the party and demands an audience, furious. However, Rigoletto has nothing but scorn for him, the condemned traitor who was only spared after his daughter had performed sexual favors for the Duke. Monterone curses the shameless behavior of the Duke and his court jester before being taken away. Reflecting on the curse, Rigoletto sets off on his way and meets professional assassin Sparafucile along the way, whose services he rejects. Instead, he enters his house, where his daughter Gilda awaits him. She knows nothing about her father's profession, not even his name, and is strictly forbidden by the housekeeper Giovanna to leave the house except for church. After a conversation in which she learns that she is now her father's entire family after the death of her mother, Gilda bids farewell. Meanwhile, the Duke has bribed Giovanna and gains access to Gilda's home. Gilda remains with pangs of conscience, as she has hidden from her father that she saw a young man in church whom she has fallen in love with. Promptly, the Duke appears before her in the form of a student named Gualtier Maldé and declares his love to her.