Rigoletto is the jester at the court of the Duke of Mantua. His speciality is making jokes at the cost of those who have been hurt by the the Duke. The Duke has a reputation as an insatiable lady-killer who seduces the daughters and wives of his subjects.

Rigoletto keeps his service at court completely separate from his private life. Nobody knows that he has an adult daughter whom he keeps hidden from society in the care of Giovanna. Gilda, for her part, knows nothing about what her father does outside their own four walls. Rigoletto’s only concern is that he should not lose Gilda, the apple of his eye.

Act One

The Duke is celebrating, a festivity devoted solely to his pleasure. He goes into raptures about an unknown girl whom he has been chasing for the last three months and whom he finally plans to conquer. For the time being, however, it is the Countess Ceprano to whom he is attracted. He pays court to her in front of her husband. The jealous Count Ceprano immediately becomes the object of Rigoletto’s scorn. Someone comes in with an amusing piece of news: it is rumoured that Rigoletto has a young mistress whom he keeps hidden. When Rigoletto provocatively advises the Duke to have Count Ceprano executed so that he can amuse himself with his wife without being disturbed, he does not only cause laughter. Count Ceprano finds plenty of support for his plan to have his revenge on the shameless jester.

The festivities are interrupted by an uninvited guest: Count Monterone accuses the Duke of raping his daughter. Rigoletto pitylessly makes him the victim of his jokes, upon which the injured father curses the Duke and Rigoletto.

On his way to his daughter Rigoletto is haunted by the curse, he cannot get it out of his mind. Sparafucile, a professional assassin, emerges out of the darkness and offers him his services. Rigoletto feels an affinity with this new acquaintance. It becomes clear to him just how much he hates his job and the Duke’s court.

Gilda tries to find out what is worrying her father, but Rigoletto evades her questions about his name and her origins. When she wants to talk to him about her mother,
Rigoletto bursts into tears. Gilda has to comfort her father in his misery. Before he leaves again he impresses upon her that she must not leave the house except to go to church.

Gilda is left with a bad conscience: she has not told her father that a young man regularly follows her to church. Giovanna puts her mind at rest. When Gilda admits that she is attracted to the unknown stranger, Giovanna promptly allows him into the house. The Duke bombards Gilda with passionate declarations of love. When she asks him who he is, he tells her he is a poor student. The happiness of the young couple is disturbed by voices in the street: the mob has gathered around Ceprano to kidnap Rigoletto’s supposed mistress. Gilda is afraid that her father will return. She urges the Duke to flee. Gilda is left with a fictitious name which awakens all her longings.

Rigoletto returns unexpectedly. The men in front of his house profess that they want to abduct Countess Ceprano and invite him to join them in their plan. Rigoletto agrees and accepts the strange conditions: which means that, with his eyes bound, he assists in the kidnapping of his own daughter. When he finds himself alone in the empty house he realizes that Monterone’s curse has been fulfilled in the most catastrophic way.

Act Two

The Duke is disconsolate when he learns that Gilda has been kidnapped. He feels that through her he has become capable of true love. The kidnappers proudly tell him about the trick they have played on Rigoletto. The Duke realizes that they have actually brought the girl within his reach. He rushes to Gilda to prove his love for her.

Rigoletto tries to find out something from the palace about what has happened to his daughter. Only with great difficulry can he hide his panic from the kidnappers. When he suspects that Gilda is with the Duke he almost breaks down the door to the latter’s chamber.

Gilda faces her father, full of shame. She wants to tell him face to face what has happened. As far as Rigoletto is concerned it does not need many words to make it obvious that his daughter’s honour has been lost. He swears he will take bitter revenge on the Duke. He does not listen to Gilda’s begging him to forgive the Duke.

Act Three

Gilda cannot forget the Duke. In order to convince her of the Duke’s unfaithfulness, Rigoletto arranges for his daughter to secretly witness the Duke making advances to another woman. In an inn of dubious repute the Duke seeks his pleasure with Maddalena, Sparafucile’s sister. Gilda is forced to listen to the Duke whispering the same sweet words to Maddalena he had once used only for her ears.

Rigoletto sends Gilda away. She is to leave the town disguised as a man. He commissions Sparafucile to murder Maddalena’s client and pays him a deposit. He wants to have the corpse in his hands by midnight. A storm is brewing and Sparafucile offers his victim a room for the night.

Contrary to her father’s wishes, Gilda returns. She eavesdrops on Sparafucile and Maddalena and thus learns that her beloved is to be murdered. Maddalena tries to talk her brother out of the murder. Sparafucile does not want to lose the money. He is prepared to make a deceitful compromise: if a stranger turns up before midnight he will kill him instead of the Duke. Gilda decides to sacrifice herself for the Duke.

The murderer hands over the murdered man to Rigoletto on his return and receives his money. Rigoletto is rejoicing about the corpse when he hears the Duke in the distance singing his sarcastic little song about women’s disloyalty. Horrified, Rigoletto takes a closer look at the body and recognises his daughter. Gilda opens her eyes once again: she begs him to forgive the Duke and promises to pray for her father in heaven, at her mother’s side. Rigoletto begs his daughter not to leave him alone. In his despair he blames Monterone’s curse for Gilda’s death.

Place: Mantua
Time: the sixteenth century

Act 1

Scene 1: Mantua. A magnificent hall in the ducal palace. Doors at the back open into other rooms, splendidly lit up. A crowd of lords and ladies in grand costumes are seen walking about in the rear rooms; page boys come and go. The festivities are at their height. Music is heard from offstage. The Duke and Borsa enter from a door in the back.

At a ball in his palace, the Duke sings of a life of pleasure with as many women as possible, and mentions that he particularly enjoys cuckolding his courtiers: "Questa o quella" ("This woman or that"). He mentions to Borsa that he has seen an unknown beauty in church and desires to possess her, but he also wishes to seduce the Countess of Ceprano. Rigoletto, the Duke's hunchbacked court jester, mocks the husbands of the ladies to whom the Duke is paying attention, including the Count Ceprano. He humorously advises the Duke to get rid of Count Ceprano by prison, exile, or death. The Duke laughs indulgently, but Ceprano is not amused. Marullo, one of the guests at the ball, informs the courtiers that Rigoletto has a "lover", which astonishes them. (Marullo is not aware that the "lover" is actually Rigoletto's daughter.) The courtiers, at Ceprano's suggestion, resolve to take vengeance on Rigoletto for making fun of them. The festivities are interrupted by the arrival of the elderly Count Monterone, whose daughter the Duke had seduced. Rigoletto provokes him further by making fun of his helplessness to avenge his daughter's honor. Monterone confronts the Duke, and is immediately arrested by the Duke's guards. Before being led off to prison, Monterone curses both the Duke for the attack on his daughter and Rigoletto for having mocked his righteous anger. The curse terrifies Rigoletto, who believes the popular superstition that an old man's curse has real power.

Scene 2: The end of a dead-end street. On the left, a house of discreet appearance with one small courtyard surrounded by walls. In the yard there is one tall tree and a marble seat; in the wall, a door that leads to the street; above the wall, a terrace supported by arches. The second floor door opens on to the said terrace, which can also be reached by a staircase in front. To the right of the street is the very high wall of the garden and a side of the Ceprano palace. It is night.

Preoccupied with the old man's curse, Rigoletto approaches the house where he is concealing his daughter from the world and is accosted by the assassin Sparafucile, who walks up to him and offers his services. Rigoletto declines for the moment, but leaves open the possibility of hiring Sparafucile later, should the need arise. Sparafucile wanders off, after repeating his own name a few times. Rigoletto contemplates the similarities between the two of them: "Pari siamo!" ("We are alike!"); Sparafucile kills men with his sword, and Rigoletto uses "a tongue of malice" to stab his victims. Rigoletto opens a door in the wall and embraces his daughter Gilda. They greet each other warmly: "Figlia!" "Mio padre!" ("Daughter!" "My father!"). Rigoletto has been concealing his daughter from the Duke and the rest of the city, and she does not know her father's occupation. Since he has forbidden her to appear in public, she has been nowhere except to church and does not even know her own father's name.

When Rigoletto has gone, the Duke appears and overhears Gilda confess to her nurse Giovanna that she feels guilty for not having told her father about a young man she had met at the church. She says that she fell in love with him, but that she would love him even more if he were a student and poor. As she declares her love, the Duke enters, overjoyed. Gilda, alarmed, calls for Giovanna, unaware that the Duke had given her money to go away. Pretending to be a student, the Duke convinces Gilda of his love: "È il sol dell'anima" ("Love is the sunshine of the soul"). When she asks for his name, he hesitantly calls himself Gualtier Maldè. Hearing sounds and fearing that her father has returned, Gilda sends the Duke away after they quickly trade vows of love: "Addio, addio" ("Farewell, farewell"). Alone, Gilda meditates on her love for the Duke, who she believes is a student: "Gualtier Maldè!... Caro nome che il mio cor" ("Dearest name").

Later, Rigoletto returns: "Riedo!... perché?" ("I've returned!... why?"), while the hostile courtiers outside the walled garden (believing Gilda to be the jester's mistress, unaware she is his daughter) get ready to abduct the helpless girl. They tell Rigoletto that they are actually abducting the Countess Ceprano. He sees that they are masked and asks for a mask for himself; while they are tying the mask onto his face, they also blindfold him. Blindfolded and deceived, he holds the ladder steady while they climb up to Gilda's room: Chorus: "Zitti, zitti" ("Softly, softly"). With her father's unknowing assistance Gilda is carried away by the courtiers. Left alone, Rigoletto removes his mask and blindfold, and realizes that it was in fact Gilda who was carried away. He collapses in despair, remembering the old man's curse.

Act 2

A room in the ducal palace. There are doors on both sides as well as a larger one at the far end by the sides of which hang full length portraits of the Duke and his wife. There is one high-backed chair at a table covered with velvet and other furnishings.

The Duke is concerned that Gilda has disappeared: "Ella mi fu rapita!" ("She was stolen from me!") and "Parmi veder le lagrime" ("I seem to see tears"). The courtiers then enter and inform him that they have captured Rigoletto's mistress: Chorus: "Scorrendo uniti" ("We went together at nightfall"). By their description, he recognizes it to be Gilda and rushes off to the room where she is held: "Possente amor mi chiama" ("Mighty love beckons me"). Rigoletto enters singing and feigning nonchalance, but also looking anxiously for any trace of Gilda, who he fears may have fallen into the hands of the Duke. The courtiers pretend not to notice his anxiety, but quietly laugh at him with each other. A page boy arrives with a message from the Duke's wife – the Duchess wishes to speak to her husband – but the courtiers reply suggestively that the Duke cannot be disturbed at the moment. Rigoletto realizes this must mean that Gilda is with the Duke. To the courtiers' surprise, he reveals that Gilda is his daughter. He first demands, then tearfully pleads with the courtiers to return her to him: "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata" ("Accursed race of courtiers"). Rigoletto attempts to run into the room in which Gilda is being held, but the courtiers block his way. After a time, Gilda enters, and Rigoletto orders the courtiers to leave him alone with her. The courtiers leave the room, believing Rigoletto has gone mad. Gilda describes to her father what has happened to her in the palace: "Tutte le feste al tempio" ("On all the holy days") and he attempts to console her. Monterone is led across the room on the way to prison and pauses in front of the portrait of the Duke to regret that his curse on the libertine has had no effect. As the guards lead Monterone away, Rigoletto mutters that the old man is mistaken; he, Rigoletto, the dishonored buffoon, shall make thunder and lightning rain from heaven onto the offender's head. He repeats this vow as Gilda pleads for mercy for her lover the Duke: Duet:"Sì! Vendetta, tremenda vendetta!" ("Yes! Revenge, terrible revenge!").

Act 3

The right bank of the river Mincio. On the left is a two-story house, half ruined. Through a large arch on the ground floor a rustic tavern can be seen as well as a rough stone staircase that leads to an attic room with a small bed which is in full view as there are no shutters. In the wall downstairs that faces the street is a door that opens to the inside. The wall is so full of holes and cracks that everything that happens inside is easily seen from the exterior. At the back of the stage are deserted areas by the river which flows behind a parapet that has half collapsed into ruins. Beyond the river is Mantua. It is night. Gilda and Rigoletto, both uneasy, are standing in the road; Sparafucile is seated at a table in the tavern.

A portion of Sparafucile's house is seen, with two rooms open to the view of the audience. Rigoletto and Gilda arrive outside. The Duke's voice can be heard from inside, singing "La donna è mobile" ("Woman is fickle"). Sparafucile's sister, Maddalena, has lured him to the house. Rigoletto and Gilda listen from outside as the Duke flirts with Maddalena. Gilda laments that the Duke is unfaithful; Rigoletto assures her that he is arranging revenge: "Bella figlia dell'amore" ("Beautiful daughter of love").

Rigoletto orders Gilda to put on a man's clothes to prepare to leave for Verona and tells her that he plans to follow later. After she leaves, he completes his bargain with the assassin, who is ready to murder his guest for 20 scudi. Rigoletto then withdraws.

With falling darkness, a thunderstorm approaches and the Duke decides to spend the rest of the night in the house. Sparafucile directs him to the upstairs sleeping quarters, resolving to kill him in his sleep.

Gilda, who still loves the Duke despite knowing him to be unfaithful, returns dressed as a man and stands outside the house. Maddalena, who is smitten with the Duke, begs Sparafucile to spare his life: "È amabile invero cotal giovinotto/ Ah, più non ragiono!". Sparafucile, a man of his word, is reluctant but promises her that if by midnight another victim can be found, he will kill the other instead of the Duke. Gilda, overhearing this exchange, resolves to sacrifice herself for the Duke, and enters the house: "Trio: Se pria ch'abbia il mezzo la notte toccato". Sparafucile stabs her and she collapses, mortally wounded.

At midnight, when Rigoletto arrives with money, he receives a corpse wrapped in a sack, and rejoices in his triumph. Weighting it with stones, he is about to cast the sack into the river when he hears the voice of the Duke, sleepily singing a reprise of his "La donna è mobile" aria. Bewildered, Rigoletto opens the sack and, to his despair, discovers his dying daughter. For a moment, she revives and declares she is glad to die for her beloved: "V'ho ingannato" ("Father, I deceived you"). She dies in his arms. Rigoletto cries out in horror: "La maledizione!" ("The curse!")