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RIGOLETTO

Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave,
rafter Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’Amuse

CREDITS AND TIMINGS

THE CAST OF RIGOLETTO

THE STORY

ACT I. During a ball at his palace, the Duke of Mantua tells of his designs on a beautiful girl he has seen in church. Then, admiring Count Ceprano’s wife, the Duke rejoices in the beauty of women and his libertine hedonism (“Questa o quella”). When the Duke’s flirtatious dance with Countess Ceprano draws the couple into another room, Rigoletto, the court jester, mocks the woman’s enraged but helpless husband. The nobles, delighted by the Duke’s daring, are even more amused when Marullo bursts in with the latest gossip: Rigoletto is keeping a young mistress. The jester has been so free with his jibes that Ceprano plots with other courtiers to punish him. Monterone, an elderly nobleman, forces his way in and denounces the Duke for seducing his daughter. Ridiculed by Rigoletto, Monterone hurls a father’s curse at both jester and Duke.

On the way home that night, Rigoletto broods over Monterone’s curse. Sparafucile steps from the shadows, offering his services as an assassin. The jester dismisses him, reflecting that his own tongue is as sharp as any murderer’s dagger (“Pari siamo!”). As he enters his courtyard, Gilda, his daughter, comes out of the house to greet him. When she asks about her long-dead mother, Rigoletto describes his wife as an angel (“Deh, non parlare al misero”), adding that Gilda is everything to him. But he will not reveal his name or allow her to leave the house except to go to church. Rigoletto warns the housekeeper, Giovanna, to admit no one (“Ah! veglia, o donna”). He runs into the street when he hears someone at the gate; at the same moment, the Duke, in disguise, slips into the courtyard, bribing Giovanna to keep her quiet. The Duke declares his love to Gilda, who has noticed him in church (“È il sol dell’anima”). He says he is “Gualtier Maldè,” a poor student. At the sound of footsteps — Ceprano and Borsa are rallying courtiers outside — Gilda begs him to leave, and they exchange excited goodbyes (“Addio, spe-ranza ed anima!”). Repeating his name (“Caro nome”), Gilda goes up to bed. Meanwhile, the courtiers stop Rigoletto and ask him to help abduct Ceprano’s wife, who lives across the street. The jester is duped into wearing a blindfold and holding a ladder against his own garden wall while the courtiers break into his house (“Zitti, zitti”) and carry off Gilda. When Rigoletto hears her cry for help, he tears off the blindfold and rushes in. Not finding Gilda, he remembers Monterone’s curse (“Ah! la maledizione!”).

ACT II. In his palace, the Duke is distraught over the kidnapping of Gilda, whom he imagines alone and in tears (“Parmi veder le lagrime”). When his courtiers return, saying they took her and she is now in his chamber, he dashes off to the conquest (“Possente amor mi chiama”). Soon Rigoletto enters, searching for Gilda. Though the courtiers are astonished to learn she is his daughter, they bar his way. He lashes out at their cruelty, then weeps for mercy (“Cortigiani! vil razza”). Gilda appears and runs in shame to her father. Alone with Rigoletto, Gilda tells of falling in love at church, of the Duke’s courtship, of her abduction (“Tutte le feste al tempio”). When Monterone is led through on his way to the dungeons, Rigoletto declares he will avenge them both (duet: “Sì, vendetta”).

Rigoletto cradles the body of his dying daughter (Pons, Andrea Rost as Gilda) © Johan Elbers 2005

ACT III. Rigoletto and Gilda wait outside the inn where Sparafucile and his sister, Maddalena, live. Rigoletto makes Gilda look through an opening in the wall. She sees the Duke, disguised as a soldier and laughing about the fickleness of women (“La donna è mobile”), trying to seduce the assassin’s sister. Rigoletto cautions his daughter and plots revenge, as Maddalena draws out the libertine (quartet: “Bella figlia dell’amore”). Telling Gilda to dress as a boy, the jester sends her to Verona, then pays Sparafucile to murder the Duke and leaves. A storm breaks. Gilda returns to overhear Maddalena urging her brother to spare the stranger. Sparafucile agrees to substitute the next person who comes to the inn. Gilda, resolved to sacrifice herself, knocks at the door and is stabbed. Rigoletto returns to claim his prize — only to hear his supposed victim singing in the distance. Frantically opening the sack, he finds his daughter. Gilda dies asking forgiveness (“Lassù in cielo”). Rigoletto cries that Monterone’s curse has been fulfilled.

THE BACKGROUND

In 1850, when Venice’s Teatro La Fenice asked Verdi for a new opera, he was contemplating King Lear, Hamlet or the contemporary Spanish play El Trovador. Finally he decided to adapt Hugo’s Le Roi s’Amuse. His sixteenth opera, it continued the phase of his career begun by Luisa Miller in 1849. Before then, he had written mostly heroic music that inspired Italy; now he had begun to translate human emotions into passionate or tender melodies.

Verdi’s imagination was fired by the jester’s paternal love, which Francesco Maria Piave emphasized in his libretto. The composer was working well with the music when the censor objected, fearing that a plot showing a monarch in an unfavorable light might provoke demonstrations. Verdi agreed only to change the locale and the names of the characters, the King of France becoming a fictional Duke of Mantua.

Venice cheered the opera at its premiere, on March 11, 1851, and especially the Duke’s cavatina, “La donna è mobile.” Verdi, realizing how singable it was, had not shown it even to the tenor until two days before the performance, so that it would not be overheard and sung by the gondoliers before the premiere. Giorgio Marès conducted a cast that included Teresa Brambilla as Gilda, Raffaele Mirate as the Duke, Felice Varesi in the title role, Feliciano Pons as Sparafucile and Annetta Casaloni as Maddalena. In America, Rigoletto was given first at New York City’s Academy of Music, on February 19, 1855; the Met presented it in its first season, on November 16, 1883. Marcella Sembrich’s Gilda led a cast that included the Rigoletto of Luigi Guadagnini, the Duke of Roberto Stagno, the Sparafucile of Franco Novaro and the Maddalena of Sofia Schalchi, under Auguste Vianesi’s baton. The current production was unveiled on November 3, 1989, with June Anderson as Gilda, Luciano Pavarotti as the Duke, Leo Nucci as the jester, Birgitta Svendén as Maddalena and Sergei Koptchak as Sparafucile. The conductor was Marcello Panni.

WHAT TO READ AND HEAR

Mary Jane Phillips-Matz’s Verdi: A Biography (Oxford) remains the standard-setter; Julian Budden’s Verdi, in Schirmer’s Master Musicians series, is also useful. For studies of Rigoletto itself, try Charles Osborne’s The Complete Operas of Verdi (DaCapo) or Burton D. Fisher’s Verdi’s Rigoletto: Opera Classics Library (Opera Journeys).

On CD, Tullio Serafin’s EMI Rigoletto retains its appeal after more than fifty years in the catalogue, due in no small measure to its potent principal trio: Maria Callas, Giuseppe di Stefano and Tito Gobbi. Richard Bonynge’s Decca recording offers a healthy dose of vocal glamour from Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and Sherrill Milnes. Two particularly affecting Gildas are Ileana Cotrubas, who joins Plácido Domingo and Piero Cappuccilli for Giulini’s typically elegant reading (DG), and Renata Scotto, teamed with Carlo Bergonzi and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau on Kubelik’s compelling performance (DG). Rolando Villazón sings two of the Duke’s arias on Italian Opera Arias (Virgin).

On DVD, James Levine paces Cotrubas, Domingo and Cornell MacNeil in a 1977 telecast of the gripping John Dexter production then current in the Met repertory (Universal). Pavarotti, in excellent form, stars with Edita Gruberova and Ingvar Wixell in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s lavish 1982 film, conducted by Riccardo Chailly (Universal). David McVicar’s controversial 2002 production for Covent Garden (Opus Arte) will not appeal to conservative tastes — the sexual licentiousness of the Mantuan court is depicted with particular enthusiasm and no little frontal nudity — but the principals, Christine Schäfer, Marcelo Álvarez and Paolo Gavanelli, offer vivid characterizations, paced with brio by Edward Downes, and the DVD includes a worthwhile short BBC documentary on the composer, Verdi Through the Looking-Glass.

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