Rigoletto

“Rigoletto” is an exciting story about affection, jealousy, intrigue, and devoted and sincere parental love. One of the most famous operas of the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi is based on Victor Hugo’s play “Le roi s’amuse”.

It was created specifically for the Venetian La Fenice theatre in collaboration with the librettist Francesco Maria Piave. The composer called the plot of V. Hugo “the greatest drama of our time.”

During the work on the opera, the author, the librettist, and the theatre management were aware that libretto censorship could be difficult. After the premiere of the play in 1832, it had been banned in France due to the unacceptably scandalous depiction of the womanizing king Francis I of France and the royal court (it was not to be staged again until 1882).

Initially, the libretto for the future opera was entitled “La maledizione” (The Curse), and G. Verdi and F. M. Piave revised resorted the libretto to avoid censorship. A duke replaced the king, the action was moved from France to Italy, and the plot was somewhat “smoothed”, reducing some shocking aspects of the story. However, as in the original source, Rigoletto remained a cruel hunchbacked jester as the composer wished. To present the new opera to the public, firstly, it was to come before the Austrian Board of Censors (as Austria at that time directly controlled much of Northern Italy.

Opera “Rigoletto” was premiered in 1851 in a sold-out La Fenice theatre in Venice. Later, Verdi noted that the opera had “the best and the most spectacular theme that I had set to music.” So the composition was performed in almost all European opera houses during the next few years. It was first performed in Lviv in 1853. On November 17, 1900, the opera was staged in the City Theatre (today Lviv National Opera) under the baton of Ludvík Čelanský.

The musical atmosphere of “Rigoletto” is emotionally heavy, gloomy and pensive; it is full of tragedy from the beginning. We hear it clearly in the opening prelude to the opera, in the orchestra during Rigoletto’s first meeting with the murderer Sparafucile, and in the depiction of the storm in Act III.

The main character Rigoletto does not belong to the outwardly civilized world of the royal court, and he stands out from everyone. And just as he breaks social conventions, G. Verdi’s score breaks musical ones. While the Duke of Mantua sings traditional opera arias, the musical portrait of Rigoletto constantly “wanders” in monologues between live speech and singing.

The musical structure of the opera is also adapted to the new dramatic style. “I conceived “Rigoletto” without arias, finales, as a continuous sequence of duets,” wrote G. Verdi. Due to this, the opera has an expressive and flexible musical style that reflects the subtlest psychological features of the plot.

The opera score has considerable dramatic latitude, from a tragic musical drama to light and vivid song melodies. The brilliant and frivolous music of the Duke and his courtiers contrasts sharply with the intense, deep music that characterizes Rigoletto and the innocent sincerity and sweetness of Gilda’s musical portrait.

The theme of the curse, which first appears in the prelude to the opera, becomes a thread that runs through the opera, “emerging” every time Rigoletto thinks about or accepts his fate. It became the cornerstone, the dominant idea that allowed the composer to create an opera filled with complex and long-lasting emotional dramatism.

The opera shows true and pure love, which forces a young girl to sacrifice herself for her beloved. In addition, it has betrayal, a professional assassin, mystery and the agonizing pain of a father who has lost his only daughter but is forced to remain in his mask of a jester.

“Rigoletto” by G. Verdi is a masterpiece of Italian opera, which gained world fame and became a genre classic. We invite you to an unforgettable journey into the world of opera with “Rigoletto” performed by soloists, chorus singers, ballet and orchestra of Lviv National Opera.