Verdi's Rigoletto: Unforgettable tunes, tragedy, and a new concept in opera

00:00:00

Jon Banther: I'm Jon Banther, and this is Classical Breakdown. From WETA Classical in Washington, we're your guide to classical music. In this episode, I'm joined by WETA Classical's, Linda Carducci, and we're exploring one of Giuseppe Verdi's most enduring operas, Rigoletto. We explore Verdi's masterpiece from start to finish, all the characters, the plot, things in the score, what to listen for, and even where to listen. We also look at Verdi's new concept for opera called A Single Breath, and stay with us to the end for a full performance of the Opera's famous quartet.

Okay, Linda, it is great to be back. We are looking at one opera in this episode, and it was so much fun. The last time we talked about opera, we went through the history, we had a whole time traveling session, didn't we?

00:00:49

Linda Carducci: Yeah, we did.

00:00:50

Jon Banther: And in this one, we're going to explore one, and that is Giuseppe Verdi's 1851 Rigoletto. And our goal in this episode is to give anyone new or unfamiliar to opera in general, a solid footing to enjoying opera even more, and specifically, this one, one of the more enduring works in the repertoire. There is so much you can learn about this one to give you a deeper understanding, especially the multiple times that you listen to it, and if you know it, I think you'll learn some things here, because Linda, even for me, I studied this in a class at school once, and it was like several weeks long. I learned stuff here as I was researching for this episode.

00:01:28

Linda Carducci: Tells you the genius of Verdi. And by the way, he composed it around the same time as he composed his two other masterpieces, Il Trovatore and La Traviata.

00:01:36

Jon Banther: Okay, so he was a little busy at this time. He was just writing a few tunes. But let's look at some of the main characters here of this opera, Rigoletto. We have the duke of Mantua, who was sung by a tenor. Rigoletto is his court jester, and that is a baritone. And then we have Gilda, who is Rigoletto's daughter, and this is sung by a soprano or mezzo- soprano?

00:02:00

Linda Carducci: Soprano.

00:02:00

Jon Banther: Soprano. And then we also have Sparafucile, an assassin, and his sister Maddalena. And then we're going to meet a few others along the way. But that gives us, I think, a starting point here. And before we jump into the first prelude and the first scene, Linda, maybe we can get a synopsis of this opera. And that might sound odd or hold on, spoiler alert. But something to think about is, a lot of these operas were written on stories or novels that were known in their time. People knew the story and these characters before they saw them. And I think, by giving a little synopsis, we get a little bit more foundation and footing here. So, what do we have here, Linda? What's the CliffsNotes version?

00:02:41

Linda Carducci: The heart of this opera is the relationship between Rigoletto, a court jester who is reviled and hated, but he has one tender portion of his life, and that's his relationship with his young innocent daughter, Gilda. But that's threatened, because the man he works for, the duke of Mantua, is a womanizer, callous, cynical, he's out to get any woman he can. He has his eyes on beautiful young Gilda, and he starts to take advantage of her. This takes Rigoletto into a tailspin, and we will see him get more and more stressed as the opera progresses. He tries to save her. He also has, on top of his head, a curse that a man gave him. So he's afraid that Gilda is in danger possibly because of this curse. So, we see this man who is a beloved father, but still reviled by people, trying to save the only tender thing in his life.

00:03:40

Jon Banther: Okay. And he tries to get some revenge in the end. And that's where we'll stop, right?

00:03:45

Linda Carducci: Okay.

00:03:45

Jon Banther: There's a little cliffhanger after that. And just want to give a quick content heads up here. There will be a scene in which we do talk about sexual assault. It's contained to one section, and we'll let you know when that's coming up.

Let's jump into the prelude, which is quite short. It's like two minutes long. It's not so much of an overture like we've heard in many operas before, and it introduces quite an ominous tone, Linda. Perhaps this is also part of the curse in the opera as well, with these diminished chords that we hear.

00:04:27

Linda Carducci: Yeah, minor key. It's very ominous. You said that it's very quick, and that is, at this point in his career, Verdi was looking to reform opera a bit, do some structural changes to it. So, gone was this typical overture that would present themes that would be presented later on in the opera. Gone was all of that. This is setting the mood. And boy, it certainly does.

00:04:57

Jon Banther: And those diminished chords, it's like if you took a minor chord and made it more minor, because a minor triad is a minor third with a major third on top of that, diminished, it's a minor third with a minor third on top. And you also get a tritone within that as well, the devil's interval, that familiar sound that we've talked about before. But we can also look at some of the stage directions here as the curtain lifts after the prelude, it says, " A magnificent room in the Ducal palace, with doors in the rear, which lead to other rooms, also splendidly illuminate. A crowd of gentlemen and ladies in sumptuous attire at the rear of the rooms, pages who come and go. The festivities are at their height, offstage music in the distance and bursts of laughter from time to time." So, we open right onto a party at the palace.

00:05:48

Linda Carducci: And it's the duke who is the host.

00:05:50

Jon Banther: It's the duke who is the host. And when the singing starts with Della mia bella, it's so fast.

00:05:58

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:06:05

Jon Banther: I don't know of any other opera, Linda, that starts this fast. If I was in the audience or when I looked at my libretto for the first time, it starts singing and you're like, oh my gosh, you're flipping pages.

00:06:14

Linda Carducci: That's true. This is sort of a theme, isn't it, for the entire opera, things are going to move very quickly, because Verdi was trying to present real life reality.

00:06:25

Jon Banther: And it is faster than you can even read in some parts. It is so energetic. I almost wonder how many people were understanding in the audience, the actual text as they were hearing it. And they are singing about this woman in town who is, well, of course, someone that the duke wants, and there is a mysterious man who visits her every night. And of course, well, the duke, he wants her, he doesn't want this mysterious man to have her. And then, Linda, we're only four minutes into the opera and we get one of the most memorable tunes, don't we?

00:06:59

Linda Carducci: We certainly do.

00:07:00

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:07:00

Linda Carducci: Questa O' Quella, which we could call a rollicking street song. And this is where the duke expresses this sort of, this hubris, this arrogance, this confidence that, oh, I can have any woman I want. This one is the same as that one. Questa O' Quella, same thing, I can have them all.

00:07:25

Jon Banther: And it sounds like such a whistleable tune. I would whistle this while I'm doing the dishes, but then you read the libretto and the text that, " Oh, this one or that one, whatever, I'll have them all. They mean nothing to me."

00:07:40

Linda Carducci: Right.

00:07:41

Jon Banther: Yeah. And you also see within the text here, little short jabs or punched- up moments, if you will. The duke is saying all this stuff out loud, and he is also talking about this other woman who is at the party, this Countess Ceprano, and he wants her. And the courtier Borsa says, " Well, hold on, stop talking so loud, they're going to hear you." And the duke is like, " I don't care."

00:08:07

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:08:07

Jon Banther: " I could care less who hears me as I am saying all this." And then the countess is coming to leave and he starts kissing her hand exaggeratedly. " Oh, how can you go? You're the life of the party." And the husband is watching, incensed. And this is another punched- up moment that... This is what I love about Verdi. This guy's mad, he wants to go over. Rigoletto, the jester jumps in front of him and does like, " Hey, your shoes are untied."

00:08:35

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:08:41

Jon Banther: He's like, " Hey, what's on your head? What's with your hat?" And this guy just pushes him aside and goes after to follow the duke and his wife. And then the Rigoletto turns around and is like, "Haha, see how mad he is? Oh, this guy's such an idiot."

00:08:55

Linda Carducci: And that was part of Rigoletto's job, not only to be the court jester and have everybody laugh and all, but he enabled the duke. In fact, he would sometimes encourage the duke to, oh, just dispense with the husband, go for the wife. This is the kind of life that he was leading.

00:09:11

Jon Banther: And as you said, Linda, this real- life nature of the opera, it is fast- paced. Verdi doesn't slow down. We immediately get another character jumping on, Marullo, who is saying, " Hey, everyone, you're not going to believe this. Rigoletto, he has a mistress." And everyone starts laughing, they say how absurd this is and they're belittling Rigoletto. And perhaps this isn't actually a mistress.

00:09:37

Linda Carducci: No, it is not a mistress. Yeah, it turns out, can we give the spoiler alert here?

00:09:41

Jon Banther: Maybe we'll save it. We'll save it.

00:09:43

Linda Carducci: Okay.

00:09:44

Jon Banther: We won't tell you who she is quite yet, if you don't know, but it might not be his mistress.

00:09:48

Linda Carducci: But this shows you that the courtiers who are in the duke's court, they regularly make fun of Rigoletto. Rigoletto is the court jester, and yet they make fun of him, they don't respect him at all. He has what used to be called a hunchback. It's now curvature of the spine or kyphosis. So, he's in pain a lot. He's not like everybody else, and they make fun of him.

00:10:11

Jon Banther: Yeah, belittling him for his physical appearance, for him being a jester, the job that I guess maybe he could have. But as you said, he's also kind of ruthless. I would say, Rigoletto is a little diabolical in some senses because, the duke and Rigoletto come back on stage and the duke is saying, " I want this count out of the way. I want his countess." And Rigoletto's like, " Why don't you just imprison him?" And he's like, " Oh, no, I can't do that. We'll just exile him. No, I can't do that." And then Rigoletto says, " Well, why don't you just cut off his head?"

00:10:49

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:10:49

Jon Banther: " What are you wasting your time for?"

00:10:57

Linda Carducci: This is an example of Rigoletto who is enabling the duke. So, he lives this life. Wonder too, if he can respect himself, for having to do that for the duke.

00:11:09

Jon Banther: And these moments, they don't fully settle before the next thing happens, because we have another count come in and rush on stage, don't we?

00:11:17

Linda Carducci: Count Monterone? Is that who you're referring to? Yes. This scene reminds me so much of the final scene in Mozart's Don Giovanni, when the Commendatore arrives, he's the stone ghost, and then all of a sudden the action stops and you hear this terrible music, this terror music, and he points his finger. In the case of Don Giovanni, he points his finger at Don Giovanni and he rebukes him for his licentious ways with women and for murdering. In a similar way, Count Monterone does that. He arrives to this terrible music that Verdi gives. When I say terrible, I mean, in full of awe, intense.

00:11:54

Jon Banther: Intense.

00:11:55

Linda Carducci: And Monterone is upset because the duke tried to seduce Monterone's daughter.

00:12:02

Jon Banther: I love that comparison to Mozart. I had not thought about that, but that's really this moment that's happening here. And what does Rigoletto do? He immediately mocks Count Monterone. He's like, " Oh, let me speak to the duke. I have to speak to the duke." And what Monterone is saying, he's like, "I'm going to come back as a headless ghost. I'm going to torment you."

00:12:24

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:12:24

Jon Banther: And then he places that curse on Rigoletto and the duke and everyone in the room starts... They sing in an outburst at this count, " How dare you? You've done it now. You're going to be in prison. You're awful." This and this. Everyone is singing it, but Rigoletto, who is like, oh my God, I made a mistake. I went too far. I find that a little, maybe it's not meant to be humorous, but I find a little humor in that, that he's the only one not singing, like, oh my gosh, what did I just do?

00:13:06

Linda Carducci: Yeah. But you see the parallels to the Commendatore and Mozart and also the reference to Monterone saying he's going to come back as a stone ghost, which is exactly what the Commendatore did.

00:13:17

Jon Banther: Yeah. It's this curse, this moment that ends scene one. And I don't know how much time has gone by, but think about how much action has happened on stage, these characters leaving, others coming on, different stories, these different women that the duke has taken. Think about a Wagner opera, how much happens in 45 minutes sometimes. It's like two people sometimes, just standing there.

00:13:41

Linda Carducci: Yeah, that's right. Things move very, very quickly here. And I think one of the reasons is, is what we were saying before, that Verdi wanted a structural change to opera. He wanted to present real life and real life things move sometimes very quickly.

00:13:54

Jon Banther: And I think this is what you're referring to with what's known as, a single breath, this concept that Verdi called a single breath. I read a great conversation that you had with, I think Saul Lilienstein?

00:14:05

Linda Carducci: Yes.

00:14:06

Jon Banther: And talking about this, tell us about this concept, because it really changes how you hear this. I think it's also relatable today.

00:14:13

Linda Carducci: The idea for a single breath was to make everything compact as in real life, to present real life as much as possible, to keep the momentum going from one piece of action to another piece of action, from one conversation to another. He said that, " To not compose in a single breath would be," quote, " to run the risk of creating a mosaic without style or character." In other words, you'd have little pieces that not necessarily connect or relate to each other.

00:14:39

Jon Banther: So, it's like, when you have a long aria and then a recitative, and then another aria, this constant starting and stopping and this kind of sing talking aspect that you heard, like with the earliest operas in the 1600s.

00:14:53

Linda Carducci: Yes. Yes. Mr. Lilienstein also went on to say that, Verdi's objective was to create within the drama and with the musical lines, a work of reality. So, he omitted the traditional practice, as you were saying, John, that was typical of Verdi's contemporaries like Donizetti and Bellini, and also composers before that, of creating pauses, where the singers would come out and deliver their spotlight showcase opera, while all of the action stopped. Or sometimes it was a duet, but still all of the action would stop, and then they would wait for the applause. So you see, all of the action is stopped throughout that. And Verdi did not want the action to stop. He wanted to present reality. That's what I think he was referring to with a single breath.

00:15:39

Jon Banther: I think that's it. And you hear musically, he leaves some things shortened or less resolved or unresolved, in order to, I think, you really just dump everything, that does not get right to the point. This episode is not in a single breath. I think we can say that safely. This is not a single breath, but we're trying.

00:15:58

Linda Carducci: That's right.

00:15:58

Jon Banther: I think this is also relatable in a sense today, in that, you think of film today, people watch movies. Some people have a harder time watching older movies because the pacing is slow sometimes. So, I think there's that kind of example too.

00:16:12

Linda Carducci: Yes. And may I just quote one more bit of Saul Lilienstein, because I think this is important. He said, " It's emblematic of the entire work. Rigoletto, the opera is concise, tightly drawn. Characters and events are introduced abruptly, like shots of a cannon. Action and music move with successive quick strokes to create that heightened sense of tension. And it barrels breathlessly toward the fierce terribilita," which is the ending. Terribilita is the Italian description of art that is very emotional and evokes terror or awe.

00:16:47

Jon Banther: I think we'll get there. So, now we're on to scene two, and we're on a different location, and we have another description here of the scene. And don't worry if you don't remember all of this, but it says, the deserted end of a street. To the left is a house of modest appearance with a small courtyard surrounded by walls. In the courtyard, a thick tall tree and a marble bench. In the wall, a door that leads to the street. Above the wall is a usable terrace supported by arches. The door to the upper left floor opens onto this terrace. To the right of the street is the very high wall of the garden and a side of the Ceprano palace. It is night. So basically, we have this house, we have a courtyard, a terrace, and a street, right here.

00:17:34

Linda Carducci: Yes.

00:17:35

Jon Banther: And this opens with more diminished chords, which you can hear that distinct tritone in the structure, before Rigoletto comes in and says, " He's laid a father's curse on me."

00:17:48

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:17:57

Linda Carducci: Yes. Remember, Rigoletto had just exited the duke's party where Monterone had cursed everybody and everybody scattered.

00:18:03

Jon Banther: Yes.

00:18:04

Linda Carducci: Rigoletto is now alone, and he can really think for himself now and have his fear realized. And that's what he is doing right now. He's fearful. Because of this curse, he doesn't know what's going to happen. He's scared.

00:18:17

Jon Banther: but then we get another character. He meets someone in the streets, and we have Sparafucile.

00:18:23

Linda Carducci: Sparafucile is a mysterious character. He walks up in the darkness and he approaches Rigoletto. And Rigoletto thinks Sparafucile is a thief. So Rigoletto says, " No, no, no, I don't have any money. Go away." And Sparafucile says, " No, no, no, I can help you. I can free you from your rivals." How does Sparafucile know, that that's what Rigoletto was thinking of, of the rivals?

00:18:44

Jon Banther: That's a good question. There's things that aren't answered, and I think we'll say a single breath a lot, or maybe that's the excuse, oh, it's a single breath. But you'll see, he drops things that you would normally see played out in a movie because, we don't really need to, in this case. We're getting right to the point of, Rigoletto is like, " I don't have any money. Go away." And then now he's like, " No, I can help you."

00:19:04

Linda Carducci: Verdi uses that device in other operas too. He doesn't present every scene, but you can tell what happened right before it or what's going to happen. You don't have to have everything spelled out for you.

00:19:13

Jon Banther: No. And musically, I love this kind of nasally sound, it sounds like they're playing close to the bridge. It's kind of nasally, a little muted. It feels dark, sinister, a little fun house mirror, and it's all happening as they're basically talking about the details for murder for hire, like an assassin, while you hear this ( singing).

00:19:37

Linda Carducci: Yeah, there are very light strings, as you say, spare cello and bass to make it seem more silent and more secretive, more clandestine as to this conversation between Rigoletto and the assassin Sparafucile.

00:19:52

Jon Banther: And I think we hear this tune a little bit after this as well, because after Rigoletto, he meets Sparafucile, he learns that he is an assassin, that's what this guy does. And then Rigoletto is alone, and we get an echo of that tune that we just heard, that sinister line in the strings, but now it's in pizzicato.

00:20:12

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:20:17

Jon Banther: With some extra notes. As he is singing about the duke, and I thought it was very revealing that we heard that music while he was talking with the assassin, and now he's singing about the duke, and we hear a little bit of an echo of that same tune that was being played during the assassin talk.

00:20:37

Linda Carducci: Oh, I think that's a wonderful reference that Verdi drew, yeah.

00:20:40

Jon Banther: I had no idea about that until I listened to it a second or a third time in the last week. Oh, well, what is that? I had to go into the score and find that moment. I love it.

00:20:50

Linda Carducci: We should add that, even though Sparafucile offered his services to be an assassin to Rigoletto, Rigoletto does not accept his offer at this point.

00:20:58

Jon Banther: Nope. He just kind of brushes him aside, but he learns about this.

00:21:03

Linda Carducci: But after Sparafucile leaves him and he keeps reminding Rigoletto, " Remember my name in case you need it, remember my name in case you need it." After he finally leaves, Rigoletto is alone in the darkness. And he reflects and he says, " Sparafucile destroys others with the sword, but I Rigoletto destroy others with my words." I think, when he's saying this, John, he's reflecting on this terrible life he has to lead, of being the court jester and enabling the duke in all these criminal activities. It's almost a self- loathing, I think that Rigoletto is doing.

00:21:39

Jon Banther: A life of regret that it's gone this way.

00:21:42

Linda Carducci: Yeah.

00:21:43

Jon Banther: And as he's singing about this, we hear the contrast when he's singing about his daughter Gilda.

00:21:51

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:21:50

Linda Carducci: Yes.

00:21:51

Jon Banther: And then we hear in the accompaniment towards the end of this, something very, very interesting. We get more diminished chords, which mean more cursed tritones. And there is a change though, he gets more relaxed when he says, " But here at home, my nature changes." But there is a slight moment of tension here as well, because we have the C major chord repeated in eighth notes. And then the final eighth note also has a B flat in it towards the bottom, and then we have a moment of silence before it moves on.

I find this interesting because, in conventional voice leading, like when you're a freshman in school and you're learning about voice leading, when you have this flat seven with this chord, like a five flat seven, for example, that seven should resolve down a half step to the third of the resolved chord.

00:22:42

Linda Carducci: Right.

00:22:43

Jon Banther: The general rules that you learn to then know how to break these rules. So, Verdi does not resolve it at all. It's just silence, and then it moves on. I think a very, maybe rudimentary, more immature way to write it would be to have it resolve to that, and then a moment of silence, and then tremolo strings enter. But by dumping that moment entirely, we don't get the starting and stopping nature that I think lends to the single breath idea.

00:23:10

Linda Carducci: The constant movement. And by the way, that you're explaining right there, shows Verdi's interest in structural changes to opera.

00:23:18

Jon Banther: Now, we get this wonderful moment with Rigoletto and his daughter, Gilda. Tell us about this.

00:23:26

Linda Carducci: Gilda is a very tender, young, innocent woman. We don't know exactly her age, but she's probably, what, 16 or 17, something like that. Very protected. Rigoletto is so protective of her, he will not let her leave the house, except to go to church on Sunday once a week. It's the only thing in Rigoletto's life, of love, of affection, of tenderness. Everything else in his life is brute and difficult and painful, and he's disrespected. But here is this oasis with Rigoletto.

He sees her and he lights up and you can hear the music. It's just so tender when he sees her in the balcony and he's greeting her. And of course, she loves Rigoletto, this is her father. So, she greets him, she can see that he's disturbed and worried about something. Of course, this curse is hanging over his head. He doesn't tell her that, though. In fact, she doesn't even know his name and she doesn't even know what he does for a living.

00:24:24

Jon Banther: Talk about just the opera drama, the drama you find in opera. What's your name, dad?

00:24:29

Linda Carducci: That's right. But she loves him so much, and you can see Rigoletto trying to protect her from the world, essentially. So, she says, " Well, tell me about our family. Tell me about my mother." And he explains in a very tender duet with her, about the one woman in his life who loved him, and they produced Gilda. The mother died, but he has Gilda as his only source of love.

00:24:55

Jon Banther: and he gets a little worked up as he's singing about his wife who died. And I think you can see Gilda almost like trying to console him. " Oh, sorry. Don't get so excited or worked up. I'm so sorry to bring this." I mean, she doesn't even know her parents' names, but you'll hear her responses often paired with something very tender, like on the oboe.

00:25:19

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:25:25

Jon Banther: I hear that a lot within her responses, or it precedes her entering with something. And in a very, very tender way, the way I guess Rigoletto also views the only good thing in his life. So, she can't leave the house, basically ever. Right? Because he doesn't want her to be taken, killed, kidnapped, or something else. And he has another character that comes on, Giovanna, who is Gilda's companion. She's supposed to be there to keep her safe, to keep the door locked, to accompany her to the church on Sunday.

00:26:02

Linda Carducci: You might think of her as maybe the governess watching over Gilda.

00:26:05

Jon Banther: Ah, okay. And so, Rigoletto demands of this woman. Did anyone come in? Has anyone seen you? Is the door locked? Is everything okay?

00:26:14

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:26:14

Jon Banther: And something that's happening off- stage, not off- stage, but on the street, that they don't know is that, the duke is here. The duke is back on stage, and he is now sliding, slipping into the courtyard, and he throws Giovanna a bag of money to keep quiet, to not alert them to his presence. I was so disappointed in Giovanna. I mean, after all of this, just a bag, and she folds, immediately.

00:26:57

Linda Carducci: Money will buy her off. If we can remember though, we can tie back to something early, very, very earlier in the opera, when the duke says, " I've seen this young woman in this house, and I really would like this young woman. I've seen her going to church, but I've seen a man enter her house sometime." Now we can see who he's talking about.

00:27:14

Jon Banther: Yes.

00:27:15

Linda Carducci: He's talking about Gilda.

00:27:16

Jon Banther: Yup.

00:27:16

Linda Carducci: When he enters here, though, he's not dressed as the duke.

00:27:18

Jon Banther: No. And that's a spoiler we were talking about earlier, it's Gilda's the daughter, not the mistress. And duke's not dressed as a duke. I guess he would be more recognizable. He pretends to be a poor student.

00:27:31

Linda Carducci: Yes.

00:27:32

Jon Banther: And I think that's because he hears her mentioning earlier, " Oh, I hope this admirer isn't a rich, noble person. They will never like me. I hope it's a poor student." And then the duke is like, " Okay."

00:27:45

Linda Carducci: Yes, Gilda has seen the duke disguised at church, and they've never talked, but they look at each other. So, she tells Giovanna, " I've seen this young man, and I am in love with him." But she tells Giovanna, " I want him to be poor." Well, the duke hears that and of course he pretends now that he's a poor student.

00:28:05

Jon Banther: Yeah, exactly. And he's there. Rigoletto has now left after this beautiful duet with Gilda. Gilda and the duke start singing together, don't they?

00:28:21

Linda Carducci: They do. They sing of their love for each other in a beautiful duet.

00:28:25

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:28:39

Jon Banther: And the accompaniment feels like pulling petals off of a flower, he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not. I get that in the music.

00:28:48

Linda Carducci: That's right. And by the way, we should mention that the duke, when he was hiding and watching Rigoletto and this woman, he overheard Rigoletto refer to her as his daughter. So, now the duke knows that this young woman that he has been pursuing is Rigoletto's daughter.

00:29:07

Jon Banther: That's right. That's right. But all the other people that we saw before, they still think it's his mistress.

00:29:12

Linda Carducci: Yes, that's correct. So, after the duke leaves from this beautiful duet that he had with Gilda about their love for each other, she sings a very famous soprano aria called Caro nome, which is dear name. She sings about how much she loves this name of this man. Of course, it's a false name that the duke has given her.

00:29:32

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:29:32

Jon Banther: And we're jumping around a little bit on this scene, but one thing to also mention is that, when the duke first comes in, he interrupts her as she's singing. She doesn't even finish the line that she's singing, before he comes in and starts singing.

00:30:05

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:30:18

Jon Banther: Again, not the single breath thing, just I'm thinking of just, he's really just trying to move this along. And so even when people come together for the first time, they're just interrupting each other. Oh, senior, I don't have any money, she's singing, oh, I'm here now.

00:30:32

Linda Carducci: Yeah, it's the seamless connection that Verdi is doing here, and he's moving quickly.

00:30:37

Jon Banther: And the woodwinds, listen for the woodwinds, especially oboe. Also, flute introduces a beautiful line for Gilda in that aria, Caro nome.

00:30:48

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:30:54

Jon Banther: But all the while, that she has been singing from the terrace, other people have gathered down below on the street, the people who think that this woman is Rigoletto's mistress, Marullo, Borsa, other courtiers, they're down there, they're in disguise. They have some swords too, and they have a ladder. They're up to something bad, aren't they?

00:31:16

Linda Carducci: They certainly are. They are there to abduct this woman who lives with Rigoletto. Now, remember, they don't know that this young woman is Rigoletto's daughter. All they know is the duke wants her, and we're going to get her for the duke. We're going to abduct her for the duke.

00:31:34

Jon Banther: And then of course, for no reason at all, basically Rigoletto walks back on stage.

00:31:39

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:31:39

Linda Carducci: Right.

00:31:39

Jon Banther: He's like, why am I back here? I'm drawn back to the house for some reason. And that's when we get a pretty funny moment in the opera and that it's dark, they're all down there. Rigoletto's like, " What's going on? I'm being drawn back here." They see him and they basically grab hold of him. And I think, at first he thinks something bad is happening. And then it's like, " Oh, you guys." And they tell him, " We're going to steal count Ceprano's wife. Rigoletto, here, put on this disguise." They put a mask on and a blindfold over it. And he's like, " Oh, I can't see." And they're like, " Don't worry. Just hold the ladder, hold the ladder." And all the while, they're singing this great chorus, ( singing) like, now's the moment, I think it translates to. And it's like, and when you watch it, they're all standing still on stage. Is he going to do it? Is Rigoletto going to fall for this?

00:32:35

Linda Carducci: Yes. Because what they're doing is they're tricking Rigoletto. They're telling him, " Oh, we're here to kidnap the Countess Ceprano for the duke." No, they're really there to kidnap this beautiful young woman who lives with Rigoletto, who they think is Rigoletto's mistress, but is really his daughter, for the duke.

00:32:54

Jon Banther: And they climb up the ladder while Rigoletto holds it, and Rigoletto's basically alone on stage at the end, holding the ladder while they're up there. And then he hears the screams of his own daughter, I think. He takes off his blindfold, and it's like, I think he yells out like, " The curse."

00:33:12

Linda Carducci: Yes. He hears her scream. He takes the blindfold up, and he sees her scarf on the ground.

00:33:16

Jon Banther: The scarf, yes.

00:33:17

Linda Carducci: And he realizes it was Gilda, my beloved daughter, that they just kidnapped, not the Countess Ceprano that they told me they were going to kidnap.

00:33:26

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:33:26

Jon Banther: So, that's the end of act one, it's like an hour long. And you don't really catch your breath until this point.

00:33:55

Linda Carducci: That's right.

00:33:55

Jon Banther: It's moving from point to point to point to point. Almost like Hitchcock, you get more tense as it goes, without really realizing it, I think.

00:34:04

Linda Carducci: Yes. And as we'll hear, Verdi started writing in for Rigoletto, as the opera progresses, in a high tessitura for baritone, Rigoletto's baritone, to show the strain.

00:34:17

Jon Banther: Yes. We'll hear that. Now, one thing we haven't talked about yet is the actual source, the book that this came from, or the idea for this opera came from, and it was a band book. Tell us about this, Linda. It was a play actually by Victor Hugo.

00:34:32

Linda Carducci: Yeah, who had written it some years earlier. Just to put this in perspective, Verdi wrote the opera in 1851. But earlier, about two decades earlier in 1832, Victor Hugo wrote a play called Le roi s'amuse, or The King Amuses Himself. And it was about the life of a court jester, Triboulet, who apparently really was a historical character, although the play is fiction, who serves a womanizing 16th century king of France. So, we see some parallels already. But the French authorities banned Victor Hugo's play after one performance. They thought it was disrespectful to the king. They called it immoral and obscene, because it was about a licentious and corrupt king. But Verdi heard about this and loving Shakespeare, loving the tragic figures of Shakespeare and the kind of contradictions that you get in Shakespeare's play, Verdi wrote to his librettist, Francesco Maria Piave, who had worked with Verdi on some other operas. He said, quote, " There is a character in this play named Triboulet, who is a creation worthy of Shakespeare. The subject is immense."

00:35:42

Jon Banther: I found that intriguing that he was so taken by this character, Triboulet, calling it, yeah, it's one of the greatest characters. Because at first, I didn't quite get that. I was like, well, I guess, or no, not really. I don't know. The more that I've listened, the more I listen to it, the tragedy and the pain and everything that happens, it is quite a character. It really is.

00:36:05

Linda Carducci: Yeah, a tragic character, really.

00:36:06

Jon Banther: Now, it was banned at that point. And as we see in opera, they'll make changes to make it past the censors in their own area. So, I guess with Verdi, in the northern area of Italy, I guess the Austrian authorities, they did not want this to be about the King of France or something. I don't actually, I don't know entirely why. If that's because it's too antagonistic or they think it's also too close to home for them. It's a documentary basically.

00:36:35

Linda Carducci: Yeah, it could be. But Verdi was writing it for the La Fenice Opera House, which is in Venice, that's in northern Italy. And it was controlled up there by the Austrian authorities.

00:36:43

Jon Banther: Yeah.

00:36:44

Linda Carducci: So, Verdi knew, if he was going to have to mount this thing, that he and Piave were going to have to make changes, as you said. And they did.

00:36:51

Jon Banther: And it went off quite well, I think.

00:36:54

Linda Carducci: Yes, they changed the King of France. That was in Victor Hugo's story. They changed it to the duke of Mantua, which is in northern Italy. Triboulet became Rigoletto, and they moved the action from France to Italy.

00:37:07

Jon Banther: And that is such a common story in opera. All these things having to change for the censors.

00:37:12

Linda Carducci: Right.

00:37:16

Jon Banther: Classical breakdown, your guide to classical music is brought to you by WETA Classical. Join us for the music anytime day or night at wetaclassical. org, where you'll also find educational resources like, Take Note!, the WETA Classical playlist and our blog, Classical score. Find all that and more at wetaclassical. org.

So, now we're going into act two, and we're back at the duke's palace. And that is when the duke discovers that this woman, Gilda, has actually been abducted. But he doesn't know yet that it was his own entourage that abducted this woman. And he has the audacity to sing like, " Oh, she was stolen from me, that she's mine." He's so conceited, he does not care about this woman, her agency or anything.

00:38:10

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:38:17

Jon Banther: But then everyone runs in to say, " Oh, we've got Rigoletto's mistress." But it's not his mistress.

00:38:22

Linda Carducci: It is not his mistress. The courtiers who abducted her still think it's Rigoletto's mistress. The duke knows better though. He knows that young woman is Rigoletto's daughter Gilda.

00:38:32

Jon Banther: And that is when the duke goes off- stage through a door into another room where Gilda is presumably being held.

00:38:40

Linda Carducci: Yes.

00:38:41

Jon Banther: And of course, Rigoletto, he walks right back on stage and he has this tune, Povero Rigoletto. The tone changes immediately when he comes on. You really hear it. He's looking around everywhere, where is she? Where is she being held? I know she's somewhere around here. And the line that he has, that's paired with some violins, he's like, dotted eight sixteenths. Lala Lala, I love that, that singing in the opera.

00:39:05

MUSIC: (singing).

00:39:16

Linda Carducci: Yeah, I do too. This shows Rigoletto, again, regretting his life, lamenting his life. We saw it in act one. We're seeing it again now in act two. Yes, he's a court jester, but privately he's lamenting what is happening here with this curse that is bringing danger to his daughter, Gilda.

00:39:32

Jon Banther: And all the while, these courtiers are looking at Rigoletto, kind of like, What's wrong? And he's like, " I knew you took her. I know what you did." And they're just like, " I think you dreamed that. I slept fine last night. I don't know what you were doing."

00:39:46

Linda Carducci: Yeah, they're totally disrespectful of his pain.

00:39:48

Jon Banther: Yes. And more of these Lala lines with Rigoletto. I love how it also pairs within the chorus. And also I think to keep the single breath and keep the pace moving. A page runs on stage and says, " The Duchess wants to speak to her husband, the duke." Now this Duchess, that's not even a character in the opera.

00:40:09

Linda Carducci: We didn't even know the duke was married.

00:40:11

Jon Banther: No. It's just that this person runs on, that duchess wants to speak to him. And that's basically their way of saying, oh, he's busy right now. No, you can't. Something's going on, he's busy. And that's when Rigoletto realizes, they have her here for sure.

00:40:25

Linda Carducci: Yes. And the pain, I mean, we can just start to see this pain, this torment that Rigoletto was feeling. Remember, this is the only form of love and tenderness in his entire life, is his daughter Gilda.

00:40:39

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:40:39

Jon Banther: And you'll hear the English horn in the music, as well as he's singing about her.

00:40:55

Linda Carducci: So, it mirrors the oboe that you were saying, when we were first introduced to Gilda.

00:41:00

Jon Banther: Yeah, I think so.

00:41:01

Linda Carducci: Yeah.

00:41:06

Jon Banther: Now we get to this section that I gave a heads- up about earlier, the content here. So, please feel free to skip ahead a few minutes if necessary. At this point, after he has, Rigoletto been singing about Gilda, she then runs on stage into her father's arms. And it's implied that she has been raped by the duke offstage in that room. And the oboe, it accompanies the opening lines here that she is singing. And it reminds me musically, in some way of the despairing Lala Lala lines that Rigoletto had as well, that shared pain here. And she's singing of what has happened. Here she says, " I met this young man every Sunday," and we also hear some mournful oboe sounds with that. And it gets more agitated in the music as it gets closer to where she's talking about she was abducted and what happened.

00:42:02

Linda Carducci: Yeah, she's explaining to her father, what's happened here. " I met this man in church."

00:42:06

Jon Banther: Yeah.

00:42:06

Linda Carducci: " I thought he was Gualtier Malde" or whatever his name he said he was.

00:42:11

Jon Banther: Yeah.

00:42:11

Linda Carducci: " But now I realize he's abandoned me. I realize who he is."

00:42:16

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:42:16

Jon Banther: And Rigoletto says, " Well, I have one thing to do before we leave this evil place." This is the turning point in the movie, where the revenge starts to get set in motion.

00:42:42

Linda Carducci: Yes.

00:42:43

Jon Banther: But as we've noticed several times so far in this opera, someone else suddenly makes an appearance on stage. And that is Monterone coming back on stage, the person who set this curse in motion. He reappears on stage with guards, he's being hauled off to prison, the music suddenly gets intense, as you described earlier. And he's basically saying like, " Oh, I guess I was wrong. The curse didn't work."

00:43:09

Linda Carducci: Yes.

00:43:09

Jon Banther: " I hope you live long, duke."

00:43:12

Linda Carducci: He regrets that this curse that he put on the duke and Rigoletto in that opening scene, didn't work.

00:43:18

Jon Banther: But I wonder if that's also the sensors putting that in there. You got to say that the curse doesn't work as well on them.

00:43:24

Linda Carducci: Could be. But Rigoletto says, " No, no, no. It's going to work. I'm going to take care of it."

00:43:29

Jon Banther: Yes.

00:43:29

Linda Carducci: I'm going to seek revenge against the duke.

00:43:32

Jon Banther: And this is a big end for act two. This is the end of act two.

00:43:39

Linda Carducci: Yes. But Gilda is saying though, to forgive. She sees the rage in Rigoletto and in her sweetness, she's saying, " Forgive, forgive me, forgive the duke."

00:43:51

Jon Banther: Yeah. Well, no.

00:43:53

Linda Carducci: No, not going to happen.

00:43:54

Jon Banther: No, that's not going to happen. And also, just when you watch this, there's impressive things about the singers who are also acting, but it's way more about the singing, of course. There's a performance I saw where Gilda is, she's like kneeling on the ground as she's singing this, and she has this incredibly high penultimate note. And the singer was on her knees and sort of leaning back. And that's hard. I know, if my back is one degree backwards when I'm trying to play, no. My breath, everything is affected, I need to be in one place. But I found that quite impressive, she's singing this very high note in an uncomfortable position.

00:44:32

Linda Carducci: Very. This is the point too, I think, where we start to see Gilda make the transformation from a very young, innocent childhood that her father Rigoletto imposed on her.

00:44:43

Jon Banther: Yeah.

00:44:44

Linda Carducci: Now she's going into adulthood. She's realizing there's some treachery out there.

00:44:48

Jon Banther: She's forced into this situation.

00:44:51

Linda Carducci: Yeah.

00:44:52

Jon Banther: So, let's take a second here and actually talk about how to listen to opera or where. And that might sound kind of silly, but there are so many different options that I think you should be aware about. You can listen only, like on a CD. You can stream it on a Spotify or Apple or something. You can buy the DVD. DVDs are selling even more these days, physical media and those used shops.

00:45:16

Linda Carducci: Sure.

00:45:17

Jon Banther: You can watch it on a streaming service, like an opera service. There's also YouTube, there's tons of stuff on YouTube. The only thing is sometimes, you're not going to always get the libretto or the text. The video or the sound might be a little compressed. But there's a ton of stuff on YouTube. And I say all this to say, I recommend if you're new to opera, totally new, watch it first. Because then you're able to see the characters and know who is singing. Because if you are just listening and you can't quickly differentiate between the singers, you might be lost as you're trying to follow a libretto, when it's easier to watch it and read a subtitle.

00:45:56

Linda Carducci: Correct. So, let's say you're listening to opera on a CD, they'll come with books, and they often have the English libretto right next to the Italian, what they're singing, so you can follow along that way. But as you say, John, if you get a DVD, you can see the action and see the plot and the characters. Make sure you get one with English subtitles too.

00:46:15

Jon Banther: Yes.

00:46:16

Linda Carducci: And if you are watching it on YouTube, I've found, sometimes I have, in the search tool, I will have to specifically ask for an opera with English subtitles, in order to get that version.

00:46:26

Jon Banther: But there is one I will post a link to, because it's been there for a while. So, it's been there for a while on YouTube, and that is a movie version. And these are great, especially if you're trying to convince someone to watch this with you, that's maybe not into opera. Basically, they've made a version of this opera and several others, where it looks like a movie, as in, it's like a single camera, there's edits and everything. But the music and the singing, it's all exactly the same, but it just kind of looks like a movie. It's not on a stage at a concert hall.

00:46:58

Linda Carducci: Yeah. It doesn't look like a camera is being held up to the stage with everybody on the stage. No, this looks like a real movie. Are you referring to the 1982 Jean- Pierre Ponnelle? Yeah, I thought that was just wonderful.

00:47:09

Jon Banther: It is. So, we'll put a link to that as well. But watching on YouTube, watching with English subtitles, if that's the language you want to read the libretto in. And then of course, I listen mainly on CD, because I'm able to get from used bookstores and stuff, an incredible amount of things for a dollar sometimes. And that's how I like to listen.

00:47:33

Linda Carducci: Yeah, that sounds great. Could I mention too that, 1982 film stars really some good singers.

00:47:38

Jon Banther: Oh, yes.

00:47:39

Linda Carducci: Yeah, the great Swedish baritone Ingvar Wixell, is in the title role of Rigoletto. Not only does he sing beautifully, but boy, his acting, I thought he was just superb in that. And then the great Italian tenor, Luciano Pavarotti as the duke, and boy, he can handle all of those arias very beautifully.

00:47:58

Jon Banther: Oh, my gosh. So, we'll put a link to that, so you can watch it. But yeah, you might have to search, with English subtitles, when you're searching on something like YouTube. Now, we are into act three, the final act of the opera, where things really start to heat up. I will read the stage description here. And as I'm reading this, imagine you're like at a Broadway show, and the set is like, the walls are cut away, you can see inside the house, that kind of thing, because it's kind of detailed like that.

It says, the right bank of the river Mincio. To the left, a two- story house, half in ruins, whose front, facing the river, allows us to see through a large arch. The inside of a rustic tavern on the ground floor and a rough stairway leading to a loft, in which, through an open balcony, can be seen a couch. And the street frontage is a door opening from within. The wall here is so full of holes that what goes on inside can easily be seen from outside. The rest of the scene represents the deserted area of Mincio, which in the background flows behind a broken down parapet, beyond the river lies Mantua. And it is night.

00:49:09

Linda Carducci: The river is important here.

00:49:10

Jon Banther: The river is very important and as the fact that it is nighttime. And it sounds like some time has gone by since we saw them last, maybe days or a week, because Rigoletto and Gilda appear outside this rundown tavern that is run by that assassin Sparafucile. And she's saying, " Yes, I still love the duke." And Rigoletto was like, " I thought you'd be cured of that by now."

00:49:35

Linda Carducci: That's right.

00:49:36

Jon Banther: So, it sounds like some time has gone on. And now we are at this tavern, but not for no reason. Not for no reason.

00:49:45

Linda Carducci: The tavern is owned and the house is owned by the assassin Sparafucile, who we saw and heard in the first scene, who offered his murdering services to Rigoletto, with Sparafucile's sister, Maddalena.

00:50:01

Jon Banther: And this is a moment in the opera that's not fully depicted like you would see in a movie maybe, where someone meets up with an assassin in a bar, they go over the details and stuff like that. No, we're just here now, Rigoletto with Gilda and the assassin. And as he's told, " Gilda, go look inside and tell me what you see." And she sees the duke and we get another incredibly recognizable tune, La donna e mobile.

00:50:27

Linda Carducci: It's in this particular tavern that a lot of action will take place now, an important action and two very memorable pieces of vocal music that Verde's going to write. Two very well- known and well- respected pieces of music take place in this tavern right now. And the first one will be when the duke arrives in the tavern before Maddalena, I believe it appears.

00:50:54

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:50:54

Linda Carducci: And again, he's expressing his hubris and his confidence that, " Oh, I'm so good with women, and oh, they're all the same." He sings a very, very recognizable tenor aria called La donna e mobile.

00:51:12

Jon Banther: " They're like a breeze, they're pretty, they're deceitful. Only a fool would trust a woman." He's just singing all of these things with such a happy tune as well.

00:51:23

Linda Carducci: The story about this, by the way, is that Verde knew that he had such a hit on his hands with this particular aria, La donna e mobile, that he forbade anybody in entering rehearsals to sing it or to play it outside of rehearsals. He didn't want to spoil it.

00:51:39

Jon Banther: That was so interesting because Tchaikovsky did something similar with the Nutcracker like 60 years earlier with that little celesta. And remember, there's not recordings and things like that. Music is a very different concept back then. So, if you're humming and singing this tune, that could get out there.

00:51:56

Linda Carducci: And the story is too, the night, I think it was the morning after the premiere, people were singing it in the streets.

00:52:02

Jon Banther: Oh my gosh.

00:52:02

Linda Carducci: That's how recognizable, that's how easy this tune is.

00:52:06

Jon Banther: So, everything that's happening in this tavern is basically planned out. Sparafucile, he comes in, he's got some wine for the duke, and he knocks on the staircase a few times, and that's the cue for Maddalena to come down. She comes down the stairs, and that is when the Gilda watches the duke really lay it on thick, how much he adores this woman, he's just flirting with her constantly. And Bella figlia dell'amore, if that's the correct, that's the title of this aria.

00:52:38

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:52:38

Linda Carducci: Yeah. This is a really unique quartet, a very famous quartet, because we have a tenor, who's the duke, singing Bella figlia dell'amore, beautiful daughter of love, he's singing to Maddalena. At the same time, she is, by the way, a mezzo- soprano, to distinguish between sort of the light soprano that the young Gilda is. Maddalena is a mezzo.

And she's going along with the game, she's going along with the seduction, but she's saying, " Oh, come on, you're joking me. I've been here before." She's kind of taking that tack. At the same time, we hear Gilda and Rigoletto who are looking in the tavern and watching them. And Gilda is heartbroken at seeing this man that she thought she loved, now trying to seduce Maddalena. And so, Verdi writes her betrayal, her expressions, with these drooping musical lines, as you can hear, her being very heartbroken.

Again, Gilda making the transition now between this young innocent girl to a young adulthood and realizing the heartbreak of love and life. And at the same time, then we have Rigoletto baritone, and he's trying to console her. So, we have this beautiful quartet, four singers singing at the same time, each saying a different thing.

00:53:50

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:53:50

Jon Banther: The last thing he said is so important. They're each singing different lines, they're singing different words. And what is so important about that is, Verdi write this in a way where you hear all of them clearly. So many quartets you hear, yeah, it's a quartet. They're singing, it's kind of chaotic. But you can really hear almost like a string quartet. Everyone's lines here, even though they're different words, the libretto has been put together beautifully to shape it like this. But you can really hear everything in a very, very clear way. That is, I think only Verdi was able to do it quite like this.

00:54:43

Linda Carducci: Yeah, I think so. I think maybe for that reason, it's one of the great quartets in opera.

00:54:48

Jon Banther: And we're going to hear actually a full, we'll hear the full quartet at the end of this episode. We have one we can play for you. And also we have to mention this because you reminded me of this, Linda, I forgot, there was a movie called Quartet. I watched it a few years ago. I thought it came out recently, but it came out in 2012, about a retirement home for opera singers and stuff.

00:55:07

Linda Carducci: In England, yeah. Great cast, by the way, Maggie Smith and a whole bunch of other ones. And the retirement home has a big gala celebration for the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi. And they're all planning to sing Bella figlia dell'amore. And there are little themes of that aria throughout the movie.

00:55:25

Jon Banther: And after this incredible quartet, Rigoletto is now telling Gilda, who's more agreeable to not be into the duke, " Go home, get money, get on a horse, put on men's clothes and go to Verona. I will meet you there tomorrow." So she leaves, Sparafucile comes over and is like, " Okay, Rigoletto. Are we doing this? Give me the money." Gives him half the money. And then Rigoletto says, " I will come back tonight to give you the rest of the half, right at midnight." And Sparafucile's like, " You don't have to do that." But Rigoletto says, " No, I want to throw him in the river myself."

00:56:03

Linda Carducci: Yeah.

00:56:04

Jon Banther: Which again, Rigoletto goes hard. It turns into a little bit of a Western, because Fucile asks Rigoletto, " What's this guy's name?" And Rigoletto's like, " You want to know my name too? He is crime. I am punishment." That goes hard.

00:56:20

Linda Carducci: It does. So, essentially, Rigoletto has already made an arrangement with Sparafucile, to murder the duke.

00:56:26

Jon Banther: Yes.

00:56:26

Linda Carducci: That's how mad Rigoletto is. That's how angry and the revenge he wants against the duke. So anyway, so Sparafucile says, " Yeah, okay, the guy's right here, I'll do it."

00:56:38

Jon Banther: And remember, it's nighttime. It is starting to storm. And if you're watching this even way back then, they would have effects to make it flash light on stage to mimic lightning. And that's in the music too, this flute line that we hear, the ( singing).

00:56:54

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:57:00

Jon Banther: This flute line that we hear returns again and again. And in the score, it says lightning. This is when the lightning is supposed to flash on stage. And we get this incredible chorus mimicking the winds, going up and down chromatically, basses being very thunderous. It really sets the scene for a storm amidst all of this.

00:57:23

Linda Carducci: Yes.

00:57:25

Jon Banther: Now, the duke, he is retiring, he's had his wine, and he's singing a little reprise of the La donna e mobile, as he is going up to his room to retire. And he actually, as it says in the score, he falls asleep as he's singing this. So, it kind of trails away there at the end.

00:57:47

Linda Carducci: So now, Maddalena, who he was trying to seduce and her brother Sparafucile, the assassin, start talking. And she has fallen for the duke.

00:57:58

Jon Banther: I can't believe this. I can hardly believe this.

00:58:00

Linda Carducci: She fell for his seductions, even though she's rather worldly and she was being very cynical about him. And she tries to talk Sparafucile out of murdering him.

00:58:09

Jon Banther: I know and " You can't do that, I love him." And she says, and she's a little hard too. She's like, " Well, that guy's going to come back at midnight, kill him." And he's a little incensed. " What am I? Am I a bandit? What am I, a robber? I have morals here. I am not going to turn my back on my client." But she basically convinces him, " Hey, if someone comes before midnight, let's kill them."

00:58:40

Linda Carducci: Whoever comes to the door.

00:58:41

Jon Banther: Yeah. " Whoever comes at midnight, we'll put them in there and then we'll..." Oh, that's what he says. " But it's raining. Who's going to come at midnight?" But as we know, there's a bunch of holes in the wall, what's happening in the tavern is also can be seen from outside and Gilda has returned. These people keep walking back on stage when they're supposed to go home or something. And she hears this plan of, well, we're going to kill the duke unless someone else comes here before midnight. And she takes it upon herself to do exactly what you don't want her to do and she creates her own death in the opera. The storm is picking up, the music is intensifying. She's banging on the door, let me in. I'm a person who just needs a place to stay for the night. Long story short, they open the door, she runs through and you don't see it, it's off- stage. But Sparafucile has a sword and he stabs Gilda.

00:59:36

Linda Carducci: Right. Not knowing it's Gilda, of course.

00:59:38

Jon Banther: Not knowing that it's her. That's right. Not knowing that it's her. Opera is always so much more complicated than you realize.

00:59:48

Linda Carducci: But you get so caught up in it.

00:59:48

Jon Banther: Yes. And that's the end of scene three. And now we're on the final scene here where Rigoletto returns.

00:59:54

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

00:59:53

Jon Banther: And he's in such a great mood, because as far as he knows, he's returning at midnight, his daughter is somewhere else safe, and the duke is dead, in a sack to be thrown in the river. And he feels very powerful. He feels like he's won here, hasn't he?

01:00:07

Linda Carducci: Finally, all throughout the opera, he has been powerless. He's a powerless character, he's serving a corrupt duke, he has self- loathing about what he's doing. He's in panic mode about the danger that Gilda is in. Finally, everything has come to fruition because he's made an arrangement to have the duke murdered, and he thinks the duke is in that sack, murdered.

01:00:29

Jon Banther: Yeah.

01:00:29

Linda Carducci: " Finally," he says, " I'm now powerful."

01:00:32

Jon Banther: Yes. And Sparafucile, he gives him the sack. He's like, " Okay, on your way, get out of here." I don't want to be around for whatever happens next. And Horrifyingly, as the sack is in front of Rigoletto and he feels powerful, he hears in the distance...

01:00:47

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

01:00:51

Jon Banther: That tune, La donna e mobile, and he is horrified. Imagine, you think the duke is dead in this sack, but you hear him singing a hundred feet away.

01:01:01

Linda Carducci: He's alive.

01:01:02

Jon Banther: He is alive. So what happens, Linda? He opens the sack and then?

01:01:07

Linda Carducci: He sees his beloved daughter, Gilda, in the sack, stabbed and near death.

01:01:14

Jon Banther: And it's amazing that she is still alive, or at first, she's dead. Rigoletto was so distraught and then she kind of calls out to him, " Father, who do I hear?" And it's this incredible moment where they're basically on stage embracing each other as she's laying down and she is begging forgiveness for her father, " I'm so sorry for what I've done." He's begging her, " Please hold on."

01:01:42

Linda Carducci: Yes.

01:01:42

Jon Banther: It's so agonizing.

01:01:44

Linda Carducci: Oh, it's absolutely heartbreaking. And we know opera has some moments that are not credible, but this is a very heartbreaking moment. And here she is, she's near death and she's asking him, her father, to forgive her for what she's done.

01:02:00

Jon Banther: And then, this is the spoiler alert, she dies. I want to mention the last line that she sings because it's unresolved. All this stuff with Verdi, unresolved, getting cut off or dropping things, were in D Flat and she's headed towards the tonic D flat.

01:02:17

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

01:02:21

Jon Banther: And her voice cuts out as she dies on E Flat. So, it's just about to settle and land on home and it never makes it there. A very different sound compared to a seventh trying to go up to the tonic. And then missing it, is I think says its own thing.

01:02:39

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

01:02:40

Jon Banther: And Rigoletto was just screaming, " The curse." And that is the end.

01:02:47

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

01:02:47

Jon Banther: What a traumatic and dark end.

01:03:10

Linda Carducci: Oh, gosh. There's so much tension in that end. And you're begging as you're watching this, you're begging for Gilda to hold on to life. Just hold on to life here for your father, if nothing else. And then he screams when she's dead, he looks up and he screams, " The curse." Maledizione means the curse. And then that's how it ends to this dramatic music that Verdi puts it. The whole thing ends, which I think is great idea, because that is so dramatic, you don't want something to follow, that would take away or remove that drama.

01:03:41

Jon Banther: No, and in the end... Think about all these characters we talked about, in the end, the assassin got his money, the sister had her new crush saved, the duke is alive and singing and going on with his terrible ways.

01:03:55

Linda Carducci: That's right.

01:03:57

Jon Banther: Rigoletto, who was already in a terrible place, has lost the only thing he loves and Gilda is dead and that's the end. This is an opera, I think as they mostly are, listen to it a few times. It's a long opera, or not long actually, it's only two hours, which is a long time maybe to listen to something. But give it a listen, listen to it again in a week or in a month. I mean, there's so much here that I learned, even though I had to study this and do like a report on it in school, I learned so much and I appreciated it even more now, having gone through this.

01:04:30

Linda Carducci: Good. And this was created during Verdi's very wonderful and creative, mid to late career period. He just got better and better and better as it went on. He, really a magnificent composer. If he hadn't lived, John, we would have to make him up.

01:04:47

Jon Banther: That makes sense. We'd have to make it up because I mean, who else is Verdi? Who else is Verdi?

01:04:53

Linda Carducci: Right.

01:04:53

Jon Banther: Well, that's all I have for Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto. Linda, do you have anything else?

01:04:58

Linda Carducci: I will say just one thing.

01:04:59

Jon Banther: Yeah.

01:05:00

Linda Carducci: Viva Verdi.

01:05:01

Jon Banther: Absolutely. And with that, we can enjoy a full performance of that quartet, Bella figlia dell'amore. The quartet is made up of Alida Ferrarini, Yordy Ramiro, Jitka Saparova and Eduard Tumagian, with the Slovak Radio Philharmonic and conductor Alexander Rahbari. Enjoy.

01:05:21

MUSIC: (foreign language) .

01:05:21

Jon Banther: Thanks for listening to Classical Breakdown, your guide to classical music. For more information on this episode, visit the show notes page at classicalbreakdown.org. You can send me comments and episode ideas to classicalbreakdown@ weta. org. And if you enjoyed this episode, leave a review in your podcast app. I'm Jon Banther. Thanks for listening to Classical Breakdown from WETA Classical.