Rigoletto Synopsis
A melodrama in three acts
Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave, after Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse
Place: Mantua, Italy
Time: Sixteenth century
First Performance: Teatro La Fenice, Venice, March 11, 1851
Synopsis:
Rigoletto is happy to abet the Duke in his amorous exploits and his bitter tongue earns him the hatred of the courtiers, of Count Ceprano who is openly cuckolded by the Duke, and of Count Monterone, whose daughter the Duke has dishonoured.
Monterone vents his anger at the Duke and curses Rigoletto. Meanwhile, the courtiers suspect that Rigoletto himself has a mistress and plot their revenge. The bravo Sparafucile offers his services to Rigoletto, should he require them. Rigoletto warns his daughter Gilda, recently returned from her convent schooling, to be careful not to leave the house. Gilda, however, has been wooed by one she believes to be a young student, whom she has seen in church. This is, in fact, the Duke.
The courtiers take their revenge on Rigoletto by abducting Gilda and taking her to the Duke, assisted by a blindfolded Rigoletto, who thinks he is helping in the abduction of Countess Ceprano. At court again, he turns on those who have tricked him and plans his own revenge on the Duke through the agency of Sparafucile.
Rigoletto then seeks to disillusion Gilda, who still loves the Duke, by showing her his depravity. He takes her to witness an assignation with Maddalena, Sparafucile's sister, having arranged that Sparafucile will murder him. Maddalena, however, pleads for the young man's life, and Sparafucile agrees that if any other man should come before midnight, he will kill them in place of the young man and give Rigoletto the body in a sack, as agreed.
Gilda determines to sacrifice herself for the Duke and dressed as a man, enters the room and is murdered. Her body, in a sack, is delivered to Rigoletto outside, but his delight is destroyed when he hears the voice of the Duke inside the house and opens the sack to reveal the body of his daughter.
