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|Startsida | Sångare | Andra artister och kreatörer | Libretton | Operahus | Jag och min operavärld | Sökord |
Music:Giuseppe Verdi.Lyrics:Francesco Maria Piave after a play by Victor Hugo"Le roi amuse".
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First performance at Teatro La Fenice in Venice on the eleventh of March 1851.
| Role | Voicetype |
|---|---|
| The Duke of Mantua | tenor |
| Rigoletto,his jester | baritone |
| Gilda,his daughter | soprano |
| Sparafucile,assassin | bass |
| Maddalena,his sister | mezzosoprano |
| Giovanna,Gildas governess | mezzosoprano |
| Count of Monterone | baritone |
| Marullo,an nobleman | baritone |
| Borsa,an nobleman | tenor |
| Count of Ceprano | bass |
| Countess Ceprano | mezzosoprano |
| An officer | baritone |
At his palace the Duke lightheartedly boasts to his courtiers of his amorous conquests. Especially a young maiden he has seen in church has his attention. However the countess Ceprano catches his eyes and is the victim of the evening. His hunchback jester, Rigoletto, teases the jealous husband, and when Marullo announces that Rigoletto is suspected of keeping a mistress, they all plot to punish the hated buffoon. Attention is diverted when Monterone, an elderly nobleman, enters to denounce the Duke for seducing his daughter. Ridiculed by Rigoletto and placed under arrest, Monterone pronounces a curse on both the Duke and his jester.
On his way home that night, Rigoletto broods on Monterone´s curse. Rejecting the services offered by Sparafucile, a professional assassin, he notes that the word can be as deadly as the dagger. Greeted by his daughter, Gilda, whom he keeps hidden from the world, he reminisces about his late wife, then warns the governess, Giovanna, to admit no one. But as Rigoletto leaves, the Duke slips into the garden bribing Giovanna to keep her quiet. The nobleman declares his love to Gilda, who has noticed him in church. He tells her he is a poor student named Gualtier Maldé, but at the sound of footsteps he rushes away. Tenderly repeating his name, Gilda retires. Meanwhile, the courtiers bump into Rigoletta outside his house and ask him to help abduct Ceprano´s wife, who lives in the palace opposite Rigoletto´s house. Insttead of giving him a mask, Rigoletto is blindfolded and asked to hold a ladder against his own garden wall.The courtiers break into his home and carry off Gilda. Rigoletto, finally realizing the deception, tears off his blindfold and rushes into the house, discovering only her scarf. He remembers Monterone´s curse.
In his palace, the Duke is distraught over the disappearance of Gilda. When his courtiers return, saying it is they who have taken her and that she is now in his bedchamber, he joyfully rushes off to the conquest. Soon Rigoletto enters, warily looking for Gilda; the courtiers bar his way, though they are astonished to learn the girl is not his mistress but his daughter. The jestet reviles them, and then embraces the dishevelled Gilda as she runs in to tell of her courtship and abduction. As Monterone is led to the dungeon, Rigoletto vows to avenge them both.
At night, outside Sparafucile´s run-down hut on the outskirtd of town, Rigoletto and Gilda watch as the Duke flirts with the assassin´s sister and accomplice, Maddalena. Rigoletto sends his daughter off to disguise herself as a boy for her escape to Verona, and then pays Sparfucile to murder the Duke. A storm rages.Gilda returns to hear Maddalena persuade her brother to kill not the Duke, but the next visitor to the inn instead. She makes her decision..
E tu serpente, Tu che d´un padre ridi al dolore, Sii maledetto!
