Rigoletto is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi that premiered in 1851 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The libretto is by Francesco Maria Piave and is based on the melodrama Le roi s’amuse by Victor Hugo (1832). The opera was initially criticized by the censors; Verdi and Piave therefore had to change the originally intended title La maledizione (The Curse) and move the scene from Paris to Mantua. The elements essential for Verdi, such as the crippled main character Rigoletto and the sack in which his dying daughter is put, have been preserved.
The opera is considered to be Verdi's first masterpiece and established his world fame. [1] Verdi himself considered Rigoletto to be one of his most successful works and, in contrast to other Verdi operas, there are no revisions or new versions. Rigoletto was already an overwhelming success at the premiere and was performed in almost all European opera houses over the next few years. In the second half of the 19th century the libretto was often criticized as a “show piece” and the music as trivial “organ music”; Today, Rigoletto's position is undisputed by both the public and the experts. The opera has been part of the repertoire of many opera houses for over 160 years and is still one of the most frequently performed Italian operas, which is reflected not only in regular new productions, but also in a large number of recordings on sound and video carriers. (Source: wikipedia)