Verdi's Rigoletto

Verdi was 38 when he composed his seventeenth opera Rigoletto, the first part of his “popular trilogy” with Il Trovatore and La Traviata. The story, based on Victor Hugo’s play Le Roi s’amuse, narrates the love affairs of the Duke of Mantua, cheered on by his jester, Rigoletto. The opera is a masterpiece in its own right, not only due to the many difficulties it faced in production (including state censorship), but above all because of its artistic qualities: masterfully clear orchestral writing, pointed musical and psychological characterization (even of secondary characters), melodic innovation, dramatic cohesion… Rigoletto marks an evolutionary step in the oeuvre of Verdi, who began to see the scene, rather than the aria, as the fundamental building block of his musical dramas, making the operatic experience more salient and free-flowing.

Photo © Brescia & Amisano / Teatro alla Scala

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