Rigoletto

“La donna è mobile”, “Caro nome”…these are only few of the successful arias contained in this Verdi’s Opera where the identity of the Villain is blurred and whose audience will most certainly cries a river.

When the Italian composer decided to adapt Victor Hugo’s “Le Roi s’amuse”, the play, which harshly and straightforwardly criticises the Royal family, had been already censored. As a consequence, this passionate opera went through many ups and downs before making it to the Venice’s Fenice Theatre, where it premiered on the 11 March 1851. Verdi and librettist Francesco Maria Piave had to change a number of different elements such as the setting, titles and names in order to be allowed to stage it.

The action takes place in the opulent palaces of sixteenth century Mantua. The opera revolves around a licentious Duke's efforts to seduce the beautiful daughter of the hunchback Rigoletto.