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Rigoletto
by Giuseppe Verdi
ACT I, Scene 1
In his
palace, the Duke of Mantua boasts of his way with women.
He dances with the Countess Ceprano, and then leads her away.
His hunchbacked jester, Rigoletto, mocks the Countess’s
enraged but helpless husband. The courtier Marullo bursts
in with the latest gossip: Rigoletto is suspected of keeping
a young mistress in his home! The jester returns
with the Duke and, sure of his master’s protection,
continues to taunt Ceprano, who plots with the others to
punish him. Monterone, an elderly nobleman, forces his way
into the crowd to denounce the Duke for seducing his daughter,
and is viciously ridiculed by Rigoletto. Monterone is arrested
and pronounces a father’s curse on Rigoletto.
Scene 2
Rigoletto
hurries home, still brooding over Monterone’s curse.
He encounters Sparafucile, a professional assassin, who offers
his services. The jester reflects that his own tongue is
as sharp as the murderer’s
dagger. Rigoletto enters his house and warmly greets his
daughter, Gilda, who questions him about her long-dead mother.
He describes the departed woman as an angel and adds that
Gilda is all he has left. Afraid for the girl’s safety,
he warns her nurse, Giovanna, not to let anyone into the
house. When the jester leaves, the Duke appears and tosses
a bag of coins to Giovanna, who allows him to slip into the
garden. He declares his love for Gilda, who has secretly
admired him at church, and tells her he is a poor student
named Gualtier Maldè. After he leaves, she tenderly
repeats his name and goes up to bed. The courtiers gather
outside the garden intending to abduct Rigoletto’s “mistress.” Meeting
Rigoletto outside the house, they change their story and
instead ask his help in abducting Ceprano’s wife, who
lives nearby. The jester is duped into wearing a blindfold
and holding a ladder against his own garden wall. Laughing
at the trick they have played on him, the courtiers break
into the house and carry off Gilda. Rigoletto tears off the
blindfold and rushes into the house. He realizes Gilda is
gone and collapses as he remembers Monterone’s curse.
ACT
II
In his palace, the Duke complains about the abduction
of Gilda, whom he imagines alone and miserable. When the
courtiers return and tell him the story of how they took
the girl from Rigoletto’s house and left her in the
Duke’s chamber, the Duke hurries off to the conquest.
Rigoletto enters, looking for Gilda. The courtiers are astonished
to find out that she is his daughter rather than his mistress,
but block him from storming into the Duke’s chamber.
The jester lashes out at their depravity but ends his tirade
as a plea for compassion. Gilda appears from the Duke’s
room and runs in shame to her father, who orders the others
to leave. Alone with Rigoletto, Gilda tells of the Duke’s
courtship, then of her abduction. When Monterone passes by
on his way to execution, the jester swears that both he and
the old man will be avenged and Gilda begs her father to
forgive the Duke.
ACT III
Rigoletto and Gilda arrive at an
inn on the outskirts of Mantua where Sparafucile and his
sister Maddalena live. Inside, the Duke laughs at the fickleness
of women. From the outside, Gilda and Rigoletto watch as
the Duke amuses himself with Maddalena. The jester sends
Gilda off to Verona disguised as a boy and pays Sparafucile
to murder the Duke. A storm gathers. Gilda returns to overhear
Maddalena urge her brother to spare the handsome stranger
and kill the hunchback instead. Sparafucile refuses but agrees
to kill the next stranger who comes to the inn so that Rigoletto
will receive a dead body—even though it is not the
one he has paid for. Gilda decides to sacrifice herself for
the Duke. She knocks at the door and is stabbed. When the
storm subsides, Rigoletto returns to claim the body, which
he assumes is the Duke’s. As he gloats over the sack
Sparafucile has given him, he hears his supposed victim singing
in the distance. He opens the sack frantically and finds
his daughter, who dies asking his forgiveness. In anguish,
Rigoletto remembers Monterone’s curse, “la maledizione!”
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