What's the story The Duke of Mantua uses and discards everyone – his knuckle-dragging lackeys and especially his jester Rigoletto. Hunchbacked Rigoletto is his pet entertainer and a figure of fun, but is also bitterly resented. When the Duke rapes a young woman, her father curses both the Duke and his taunting jester – a curse that haunts Rigoletto. His secret sanctuary is the house where he keeps his daughter Gilda secure from the vicious court. But Gilda falls for a stranger, who is none other than the Duke in disguise, and the Duke’s sniggering courtiers kidnap her and hand her over to him. Anguished, Rigoletto hires a hit-man to avenge Gilda, but despite everything she continues to love the Duke, and tragically decides to protect him – whatever the cost.

Why should we care? Rigoletto is based on Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse, a play considered so inflammatory that it was banned after only one performance. To Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), it was ‘the greatest subject and perhaps the greatest drama of modern times.’ In the sour joke of a plot, Rigoletto is cruelly tricked out of his daughter and his revenge, and all the while has to play Mr Funnyman as the Duke of Mantua’s court jester. The opera is characterised by the sound of laughter when nothing’s really funny. Rigoletto begins with a curse and some sprightly dance music – it ends with a howl of agony and a carefree lecher who has once again got his way. Verdi thought the disabled Rigoletto was a character ‘worthy of Shakespeare.’ At first he seems deeply implicated in the Duke’s corrupt and sleazy court, but as the opera broadens out into quiet backstreets and seedy riverside dives, we see a complex, devoted father destroyed by his best-laid plans. Gilda never openly defies Rigoletto, but she quietly resists him – falling for a persuasive stranger, and trying to spare her worthless lover’s life. Verdi, an intensely political artist, bleakly expresses the price of an individual challenging their vicious society. He is also a supreme dramatist, and in Rigoletto brings us the chilling sound of characters laughing in the dark.

What does it sound like? The intense 'curse theme' kicks off the prelude to Rigoletto, before presenting the eerie gaiety of the Duke’s party. Laughter and terror shape the soundworld around Verdi’s vivid characters. Rigoletto claims he becomes a gentler person at home with Gilda, but when that sanctuary is invaded, he lets rip with the furious ‘Cortigiani, vil razza dannata’ (‘Courtiers, vile bastards’), impotent outrage pushing him to desperate high notes. Verdi wanted to create an opera built around a series of duets rather than arias or finales, so conflicting characters continually play off against each other. In the turbulent quartet, Gilda watches breathlessly with her father as the Duke flirts with another woman, Verdi brilliantly containing their diverse emotions. Only the Duke demands a series of individual arias, as he is utterly selfish. He’s also a devil with all the best tunes, including the disturbingly sweet ‘La donna è mobile’ (‘Women are fickle’), his infuriating theme tune. Even when Gilda negotiates duets and ensembles, a solo oboe suggests she’s listening to her own inner voice: despite apparent subservience she finally, devastatingly goes her own way.

Other stuff Victor Hugo’s 1832 play Le Roi s’amuse describes an apocryphal incident from King Francis I’s private life. The audience for Hugo’s drama erupted in varied outrage and delight when the furious jester attacked the aristocrats who abducted his daughter: ‘You are all bastards! Your mothers gave themselves to servants!’ The play was banned next day. Verdi’s original title for the opera was The Curse (La Maledizione). The libretto is by Francesco Maria Piave, a proofreader-turned-poet who wrote several libretti for Verdi, including Macbeth and La traviata. Verdi’s score requests a thunder machine to give the storm in the last act full impact. Rigoletto premiered in Venice in 1851 – it was written for the carnival season. There were huge battles with the censor over the plot’s ‘repulsive immorality and obscene triviality’. The original baritone singing Rigoletto suffered terrible stage fright, so Verdi had to shove him on stage, creating a perfect entrance for the ungainly jester.

Exploring further - links Rigoletto (English National Opera guide) includes background material, plus the libretto. Rigoletto (1981), sumptuous film directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle with Luciano Pavarotti. Verdi: A Biography by Mary Jane Phillips-Matz (Oxford), a full modern biography. The Operas of Verdi by Julian Budden (Oxford) – volume one discusses Rigoletto. The Prince’s Play (Faber) – a vigorous version of Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse, translated by poet Tony Harrison.