Rigoletto

This Role is from the Opera :
Rigoletto

This role performs the piece/s :
Ah! Veglia, o donna
Chi e mai
Corteggiani
Figlia! Mio padre!
Quel vecchio maledivami
Si, vendetta, tremenda vendetta
Tutte le feste al tempio
Un dì, se ben rammentomi

The Voice Type for this Role is :
Baritone

FACTS: In the source for the opera, “Le Roi s’amuse” (1832) by Victor Hugo, the seducing aristocrat was Francis I of France (1494-1547) and Triboulet his real-life jester. When nervous Austrian censors forced Verdi to change the character of the King to the Duke of Mantua, Triboulet became Rigoletto.

Rigoletto is court jester to the Duke of Mantua. He is a hunchback, a feature on which his musical creator Verdi had strong views: “A hunchback who sings? Why not! Will it be moving? I don’t know … I find it great to show this character misshapen on the outside and impassioned, so full of love on the inside.”*

Rigoletto has never told his daughter Gilda his name, and he says he has no family or friends since her mother died. He believes his face is his fate: “O mankind! O nature! You have made me vile and wicked! O fury! To be deformed…”

* Letter of 14th December 1850 from Verdi to Carlo Marzari, Administrator of the Teatro La Fenice, regarding the Austrian censors’ objections.

CHARACTER EVOLUTION: Rigoletto’s job is to be a vicious wit in a vicious court; when Rigoletto points out that Ceprano is “fuming” the court reply, “How entertaining!” Their reaction to Marullo’s news of Rigoletto’s ‘new love’ shows that he is not loved or popular: “That monster, playing Cupid?” Rigoletto reinforces this evil image by suggesting that the Duke abduct Ceprano’s wife, or execute her husband. Even the Duke recognises that Rigoletto steps over the mark with Ceprano:
Duke (to Rigoletto): “Come here, fool. You always carry a jest too far. The anger you stir up may turn on you.”
Ceprano agrees, “Which one of us does not bear him a grudge for his evil ways?” Monterone sees Rigoletto as the Duke’s “cur”, and curses him: “And you, snake, you mock a father’s grief, a curse on you.”

Rigoletto is horrified: “(That old man cursed me).” Why does he ask Sparafucile, at this stage, the price for killing a nobleman? Monterone’s fate is already sealed… Rigoletto seems morbidly fascinated by the professional assassin: “We are alike … I stab men with laughter, he with a dagger.” He riles against society and his enforced role in life: “ I loath you, vile courtiers! How I love to sting and needle you. If I am evil, you are the sole cause!”

Suddenly the tables turn; “Yet here I become a different person” as he greets “My daughter … near you my heavy heart finds its sole joy.” As Gilda presses for information on her mother, Rigoletto reveals, “Out of pity she loved me, alone, deformed, poor” and that Gilda is “Religion, family, country, my whole world is in you!” In front of her he is ashamed of his job: “I am a man feared, perhaps envied by some, cursed by others…”. He shows double standards regarding dishonoured daughters: “They’d dishonour a jester’s daughter here, and laugh. Horror!” He does not leave until he is certain that she is safe and secure, but the inexperienced father does not see the perils of ordering a young girl to say indoors when the city beckons…

He is still obsessed with the curse when Marullo and the courtiers fool him into holding the ladder whilst they abduct Gilda. The stage directions show his horrified reaction as he realises the truth: ‘He wildly tears off the blindfold … and sees the open door; … (he) tears his hair without being able to make a sound; finally, after much effort he cries: “Ah, the curse”. He faints.’

As Rigoletto searches the palace for Gilda, he disguises his worry with jokes until he demands, “Give me my daughter!” He storms against the courtiers: “To you, nothing is above money, but my daughter is a pearl above price.” He echoes Monterone’s emotions: “The man who defends his daughter’s honour fears nothing on earth.” When Gilda rushes in, he comforts her, but swears vengeance on the Duke: “The jester knows how to strike you like a thunderbolt thrown by God.”

Rigoletto clearly cannot persuade Gilda that the Duke is a rogue, and so has to take her to the tavern to prove it. He wants to wait before killing the Duke, and makes Gilda watch, harshly reminding her: “Quiet, your tears are useless”. Rigoletto revels in his role as avenger: “His name is Evil, mine is Retribution.”

Rigoletto returns at midnight to collect his corpse, revelling in his month of planning and waiting; “Weeping tears of blood.” He delights in the change of status death brings: “ I am a jester, and a Duke merely that! He lies beneath my feet!”

On hearing the Duke’s voice, Rigoletto discovers the dying Gilda; he can’t believe his eyes: “It’s a dream!” When he realises what she has done and why, he sees how: “She was caught in the execution of my just vengeance!” He begs her, “Do not leave me alone!”…Let me die with you” but in vain. At the end, ‘He falls on the corpse of his daughter, tearing his hair.’

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT: Verdi was clear that the hunchback was to be a good person on the inside, yet there is a lot of hatred in Rigoletto. He understands this himself, seeing how society has twisted him towards evil, but seems powerless to resist its pull. It is ironic and tragic that his zealous protection of his daughter contributes to their mutual downfall.

© 2004 Kirsty Young
Internet rights 2004 OperaTalent