Professional Documents
Culture Documents
General:
Issues of Innovation:
OPERATIC FORM
o CHANGING THE TYPE OF MUSIC THAT CREATES
CONVENTION
o Less use of double-arias, only one for the Duke, the
other is inverted:
o EG. Cortigiani, vil razza dannata
Feeling of a double-aria but the 1st movement is
fast and second is slower (reverse of conventions):
THIS IS BECAUSE THE DRAMA REQUIRED IT
Starts with Rigoletto demanding information
and then ending up sad and begging the
Courtiers.
o More flowing in than before
David Kimbell: Caro nome aria juxtaposed into
the entrance of the Courtiers. Their sinister music
undelays Gildas beautiful vocal line on top.
Act III Quartet Breaks all templates of what
numbers should be.
Split stage, almost like two juxtaposed
duets, two different dramatic strings.
The confrontation of Madonna and
Magdalene.
David Kimbell: Act III Storm Scene:
Storm builds through the La donna e
mobile reprise to madalennas arietta and
then the trio.
o It connects the wholse scene together
as one and mirrors the build of the
drama to catastrophe.
o Only a male chorus (no female chorus at all):
Used in innovative ways, for example, the storm
chorus in act III with them being the wind.
o David Kimbell: NO arie di sortita:
None of the three main characters do
Operatic Form:
Five Arias:
o Only one in double-aria form (Possente amor, Act II)
o Three in single movement form
Five Duets
o Seen as most important for for the opera
o Verdi (in a letter to Carlo Borsi):
Sees Rigoletto as anunbroken chain of duets
NO grand finales to acts
Lack of Recit:
o David Kimbell: Act 2 has no recit. The orchestra
connects the different scenes together and drives the
drama forward.
Male chorus only
NO RECITATIVE IN ACT II (flows through Duets and
parlante style)
Vocality:
Rigoletto:
o Dramatic Baritone
o Extreme use of parlante.
Duke of Mantua:
o Lyric Tenor
o Beautiful legato lines and captures the traiditional idea
Source Material
Hugos play was very contentious and seen as an attack on
the king and so banned by all the censors.
Verdi had previously set Hernani as Ernani (1843) and so has
worked with Hugo as a source material before.
VERDI LIKED HUGO FOR HIS powerful, passionate and original
characters
VERDI COMPARING RIGOLETTO and ERNANI
o More revolutionary, youthful and original in form and in
style.
Thematics:
Theme of LOVE:
o Love becomes a central theme in his next few operas.
Idea of a PERILLOUS Love that undermines the
opera.
o Paternal/filial affection
Seen through relationship between Gilda and
Rigoletto
Important due to the development in Italy at the
time towards a more autonomous family unity.
Gildas fight to love who she wants to love is
something a lot of women of the time could
affiliate with.
Fathers love is shown through need to protect his
daughter but ends up killing her.
o Romance
Seen with Gildas love for Duke eg. Caro Nome
A more conventional form of love with more
conventional type of music
o Eroticism
Seen best through the Duke and Madalenna scene
in the quartet.
Madalennas vocal line is provocative in a
slight parlante style whilst the Dukes is in
his upper register, evoking a feeling of erotic
pleasure for him.
Theme of seduction and rape:
o 19th century Italy, rape considered a crime against
honour
Punishment was to correct that value eg. Marriage
payment, prison.
o Therefore, any suggestion of rape had to be lost from
the music and libretto. The handing over of a key, a
symbol of taking virginity was lost.
CASTING:
o Rigoletto Felice Varesi
o Gilda Teresa Brambilla
o Duca di Mantova - Raffaele Mirate
Teatro La Fenice, Venice:
o Venice was a REPUBLIC so was more likely to take risks
on such a controversial story as that of Victor Hugos.
Censorship even in Venice:
o Issue of Duke going into a room with Gilda and a key (a
symbol of taking virginity).
Symbols were huge at this time, lots of symbols
around for the Risorgimento etc.
o King had to be changed to Duke
o BUT- because it was set in the past it didnt get as much
persecution from censors as it would have done if set in
the present.
o Gilda & Duke Duet ended in a musical kiss because
censors would have censored an actual kiss.
Huge double cadenza evokes the idea of a kiss
o In Other Theatres even heavier censorship was
employed like keeping Gilda alive.
Characterisation:
David Kimbell: Rigoletto presented Verdi with new and exciting
characters, allowing him to create musical personae for each
of the characters.
RIGOLETTO
o Very parlante style of music, no real aria
o David Kimbell: Cortigiani, vil razza dannata
example of Rigolettos dramatic character.
Double-aria in reverse to show the demise of
his character in the scene.