Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto

BACKGROUND

As one of the most popular operas in the repertoire, one might not ever expect that Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto had such a beleaguered beginning. A host of hummable tunes and a tremendously dramatic plot notwithstanding, Verdi’s 19th century opera barely survived the suffocating grip of censorship that seized Western Europe. Victor Hugo’s 1832 play, Le Roi s’Amuse—a scathing response to the seemingly perpetual link between power and corruption—captivated the attention of Verdi and his loyal librettist, Francesco Maria Piave. With the French monarchy newly restored at the time of its premiere, Le Roi s’Amuse failed to win the approval of the aristocracy; the play was banned in France and remained unperformed for the next 50 years. Verdi was undeterred by France’s resistance to the play and set Piave to work on a libretto. While Verdi expected that some changes would have to be made (the original play being a thinly veiled criticism of the French king, Louis-Phillipe), he did not anticipate how strongly the opera would be opposed even by Venetian censors. After a series of amendments and different titles, Rigoletto finally had its premiere at Teatro La Fenice in 1851, maintaining the majority of the issues explored in Hugo’s original play. The opera was an immediate success and, to the initial chagrin and ultimate delight of Victor Hugo, was performed in Paris over 100 times while Hugo’s play remained banned from the stage.

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