- Verdi’s opera Rigoletto (designated a “melodramma”) premiered in Venice on March 11, 1851.1
- The libretto of Rigoletto was adapted by Francesco Maria Piave from Victor Hugo’s play 1832 Le roi s’amuse.2
- Hugo’s play was originally banned for its negative portrayal of a monarch. Verdi’s opera was rendered slightly less controversial by changing the amoral antagonist from a king to a mere duke, but it remains a strong critique of corrupt power nevertheless.
- In 1850, the Venetian authorities wished to ban Rigoletto (then entitled Stiffelio) for reasons similar to the French authorities’ objection to the original French play. Verdi wrote to the censors insisting that the Duke had to have absolute power over his subjects for the story to make dramatic sense, and in the end the censors aquiesced (even though that meant the opera remained an obvious critique of despotism).3
- Synopsis from The Metropolitan Opera
Sources
- Roger Parker, “Verdi, Giuseppe,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed May 25, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000029191.
- Ibid.
- Roger Parker, “Rigoletto,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed May 25, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000002584.
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