This document provides background information on Giuseppe Verdi's 1851 opera Rigoletto. It discusses how the opera was controversial for its portrayal of immorality but became a masterpiece. It describes the main characters including Rigoletto, a hunchbacked court jester, and the curse that drives the plot. It also analyzes recurring themes in Verdi's operas like family relationships and how Rigoletto pushed boundaries with its portrayal of unusual relationships and asymmetric characters like the limping jester.

1. Verdi’s 17th
opera was
the 1851 production of
Rigoletto. It was the
first of his 27 operas to
be considered a real
masterpiece for the ages.
We will watch excerpts
from a terrific 1977 Met
video, with James
Levine conducting.
Verdi had to struggle a lot with the Austrian
censors, who controlled Verdi’s northern Italy.
They were not just on the lookout for some
questionable morality in the plots, they were
also very concerned with politically dangerous
ideas. A later Verdi opera, The Masked Ball
had to have the plot be set in Sweden, of all
places, because the regicide theme was too
close to home if set in Europe.
The main character Rigoletto is a court jester
in a Duke’s palace. He is a hunchback and
opera productions vary in how much of a deal
they make of that, with his posture and gait. Of
course this physical deformity can also be seen
as symbolic of a twisted personality.
Key to the plot is a curse thrown at
Rigoletto, who is very superstitious.
That is still with us – Pavarotti was
quite superstitious. Even in today’s
Italy belief in the “evil eye” is by no
means an anachronism.

2. As an outsider to the court’s nobles’
society, Rigoletto has been portrayed as a Jew
in one production, wearing a yarmulke and
with a menorah in his house.
A singer playing a great Rigoletto needs
quite a lot of acting ability. We will see a
great portrayal by Cornell MacNeil.
Some critics have noticed that there are some
unusually close family relationships portrayed in
this opera, possibly unnaturally close. Rigoletto
and his daughter Gilda are living together, just
the two. Rigoletto is extremely involved with her
and is obsessed with her not meeting any other
man than him. The villain Sparafucile and his
prostitute sister Maddalena are another pair living
together in a very intimate setting, away from the
rest of society. Running with an idea like this in
a production is much less bizarre than what is
often done in “Eurotrash” opera atrocities.
Puccini wrote 10 operas and none of them have older
parents as singing characters, even minor ones. The
lovers that are his subject matter may mention their
parents but they do not appear on stage and are
basically irrelevant. Verdi was the reverse. The
strongest love in many Verdi operas is that between a
father and his son or daughter. And that father is
always trying to break apart any love interest his child
may have in a potential mate. This is true in
Rigoletto, in La Traviata, in Aida, and others. In Il
Trovatore it is the mother’s tie to her child that is
theme. And these parents are major presences in the
operas. In Verdi’s Nabucco it is again a
father/daughter relationship that is key to the plot.

3. There is the story about Mrs. Plotkin, at a
charity event, wearing an enormous diamond
ring. When asked about it she said that it was
the famous Plotkin diamond and that it comes
with a terrible curse ….. Mr. Plotkin.
It is hard for us today to appreciate how
scandalous this opera was when it came
out, in 1851. The government censor
said that the subject was one of “revolting
immorality and obscene triviality”. Verdi
had to fight hard in order to keep the
censors from cutting out key aspects of
the opera – the hunchback, the dissolute
monarch, the implied rape, etc. The
opera is based on a play by Victor Hugo,
The opera replaces the king of France, in
the play, with a minor Italian duke in
order to pass the censors.
The idea of a powerful curse
has been around for a long
time. The original title of
Rigoletto was La Maledizione,
“the curse”.
In the opera the curse is hurled at both
Rigoletto and the Duke. But only Rigoletto
suffers from it. The Duke gets off unscathed
because anything that could cause or reflect
political tension was forbidden by the censors.
In Verdi’s Il Trovatore the
“evil eye” plays an important
role in the plot.

4. Jesters, like this
medieval one, have
always been
important to royal
court life. They are
an example of the
Jungian “trickster”
character who
crosses freely back
and forth between
boundaries – often
the boundary of
what are socially
acceptable words
and deeds. In the
case of Rigoletto he
has an additional
feature of interest
– being a
hunchback. This
represents a
different kind of
boundary crossing.

5. 1.
A key feature of the joker or
jester is asymmetry. Here the
costume is not right/left
symmetrical. Socks don’t match,
etc. For a mythic character to
cross over more extreme
boundaries – not just of social
propriety, but of life and death –
what is needed is asymmetry of
the body, not just the clothes.
Saint Jerome, from 1600 years
ago, claimed that Jesus was lame
or deformed in some way and that
reflects some very old legends in
the Jewish Talmud. When Jacob in
the bible wrestled with an angel
he dislocated his hip joint and
limped afterwards. The name of
the Greek god Dionysus means
“lame god” in Greek. The Greek
blacksmith god Hephaestus was
lame. The Norse god Odin gave up
one of his eyes in exchange for
wisdom. The most common
mythic body asymmetry is one
affecting the walking gait, like a
limp.

6. When the opera is
performed the
hunchback Rigoletto
is usually shown bent
to one side and
shuffling along with a
limp. Verdi was
probably unaware of
any symbolism this
might have.
This limping theme is the key
feature in one of the world’s
oldest and most widespread
folktales - of the Cinderella story.
She loses a slipper when fleeing
the ball and must then limp. The
symbolism of one shoe on, one
shoe off, is bridging between this
world, contacted by the shoeless
foot, and the next world to come.
That idea and symbolism was
probably disseminated thousands
of years ago by Siberian shamans.