Cheat sheet:
Rigoletto
Everything you need to know about the opera many consider Verdi’s masterpiece.
This article was first published by Opera Australia.
The composer
Verdi, the most famous and successful Italian opera composer of the 19th century. Find out more.
The music
Thematic, catchy and atmospheric. Verdi gave each of his characters a kind of theme song. Listen to the big hit: 'La donna è mobile', the tune that's scored a thousand pasta ads.
The setting
Verdi's opera is set in 16th century Mantua. Moshinsky here updates the action to the early 1960s, in a La Dolce Vita inspired underworld of dangerous glamour.
The main players
The Duke of Mantua: a rich man who can, and does, take any woman he wants
Rigoletto: his hunchbacked court jester
Gilda: Rigoletto’s beautiful, cloistered daughter
The history
Verdi lost a few battles with the censors over Rigoletto, but got to keep most of his plot by threatening to never write another opera for Venice.
A quirky fact
Determined to keep the score a secret, Verdi forbade his tenor from even whistling his aria 'La donna è mobile' outside rehearsals, lest someone overhear its catchy melody.
The revolving dollhouse-style set of Rigoletto weighs 16.5 tonnes. The floor of the palace is made of stainless steel tiles (they weigh 1.5 tonnes!). Watch it all come together.
What happens in the story?
The Duke of Mantua lives only for pleasure of the female kind. No man’s wife or daughter is out of his reach, and while the Duke seduces their women, Rigoletto mocks their misfortune. The men of the court plot vengeance, hatching a plan to abduct a beautiful woman they believe Rigoletto has hidden away.
The woman is Rigoletto’s daughter, who despite his best efforts to keep her hidden, has already caught the eye of the lustful Duke. He pays a visit to seduce the beautiful Gilda. Before he can complete his mission, Gilda is kidnapped by the mob of men, who take her to the Duke’s palace for his amusement. The distraught Rigoletto vows to take vengeance.
But Gilda loves the Duke, in spite of everything, and is prepared to go to any lengths to save him from her father’s wrath.
Love and vengeance meet in the darkness as the opera draws to its dramatic, devastating conclusion.
Who was the composer?
Giuseppe Verdi had a gift for taking a character marginalised by society and putting them centre stage, whether it be a hunchbacked jester in Rigoletto, an Ethiopian princess in Aida or a courtesan in La Traviata.
He wrote big, beautiful melodies that demanded technical brilliance from his singers but are also undeniably catchy.
The composer was born in a small village in Parma to a poor family. He became a music teacher and conductor before finding success as an opera composer. By the time he died in 1901, his fame was such that 200,000 people lined the streets at his funeral to pay their tribute.
Where have I heard that before?
Everywhere. From advertising to movies, this has got to be the catchiest tune in opera.
Leggo’s Tomato Paste Advert
Leggo’s Tomato Paste Advert
Rhapsody in Red
The Family Man
The Family Man
A rendition by Nicolas Cage
A little history
A prolific opera composer, Verdi was always on the lookout for a strong character to base his next work on, and when he read Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’Amuse, he was captivated. The story of a lascivious King and his hunchbacked jester was banned in France after just one performance, but it was in the jester Verdi saw “a creation worthy of Shakespeare”.
He knew it would be a battle to get through Austrian and Italian censors, so at the suggestion of one of the very censors he needed to satisfy, swapped the King for a Duke, the setting from France to Italy and toned down some of the action.
It went back and forth with the authorities for months before it opened, but when it did premiere at La Fenice in Venice in 1851, it was a triumph. The opera is now widely considered Verdi’s masterpiece.
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