Italiano | English
Music by
Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by
Francesco Maria Piave
Rigoletto was first performed in Venice, at the Teatro la Fenice, on November 3, 1851
The Characters
- The Duke of Mantua
- Rigoletto, his court jester
- Gilda, Rigoletto's daughter
- Sparafucile, a hired thug
- Maddalena, his sister
- Giovanna, Gilda's guardian
- Count Monterone
- Marullo, a knight
- Matteo Borsa, courtier
- Count Ceprano
- Countess Ceprano
- Court Usher
- Duchess' page
Act One
At a ball at the ducal court of Mantua, the jester Rigoletto mocks the courtiers cuckolded by the profligate Duke, stirring them to plans of vengeance. Count Monterone appeals to the Duke for the return of his dishonored daughter, but is cruelly mocked by Rigoletto. Enraged, Monterone calls down a father’s curse on the terrified jester.
Outside his house, Rigoletto encounters Sparafucile, a professional assassin, but has no need of his services. Gilda, Rigoletto’s daughter, has fallen in love with a handsome young man she has encountered on her way to church. The object of her affections is the Duke, who appears as soon as Rigoletto has left. He tells her he is a poor student. After he leaves, the courtiers come to abduct Gilda, believing her to be Rigoletto’s mistress. When Rigoletto realizes what has happened, he is distraught. He remembers the curse.
Act Two
The Duke is delighted to discover that she has been brought to his palace and awaits him in his bedroom. Rigoletto now enters, feigning indifference but desperately seeking signs of the whereabouts of his daughter. When he realizes what has happened he pleads with the courtiers for her return, but to no avail. Gilda appears en dishabille, and Rigoletto swears vengeance on the Duke.
Act Three
Sparafucile’s sister Maddalena has lured the Duke to a remote inn. Rigoletto has paid Sparafucile to kill the Duke. Rigoletto brings Gilda with him to spy on the inn, hoping to reinforce the notion that the Duke is not a man of honor in affairs of the heart. Gilda is unimpressed. Rigoletto sends her home to change into men’s clothing for their flight to Verona. Infatuated with the Duke herself, Maddalena begs her brother to spare him and to murder the jester instead. His sense of professional responsibility offended, Sparafucile refuses, but does go so far as to agree that if anyone else should happen to show up at the inn, he will murder them instead. Gilda, returning and hearing all this, sees her chance to help the man she loves. She boldly walks up to the door of the inn, knocks, is admitted and promptly stabbed and stuffed into the sack for Rigoletto. Rigoletto is just about to throw the sack in the river when he hears the Duke still singing in the inn. Wildly he opens the sack to find his dying daughter, who with her last breath assures him that she will pray for him with her mother in heaven.
Italiano | English