Human emotions abound, love, hate, yearning, ecstatic joy (in small doses), vengeance, violence, murder and death. The opera checks off every box an opera lover could ask for: one inspired melody after another, vibrant rhythmic thrust, a hit parade of vehicles for operatic vocalism, four full scenas with cabalettas, high notes in quantity. The play launched García Gutiérrez’s career and the opera reaffirmed Verdi’s already preeminent status. Both Verdi and Antonio García Gutiérrez, the author of the original Spanish play El Trovador, were born in 1813, several months apart.
The result? Il Trovatore, one of the world’s most popular operas, one which has never been absent from the world stage since its triumphant premiere in 1853. But Verdi brought this tormented soul to center stage and into her into a tragic heroine. Verdi presented just that tragic protagonist in Rigoletto.Īfter that, attacking another societal prejudice, Verdi challenged the public’s view that a Romani* woman could only appear on stage to tell fortunes and dance.
In the minds of Verdi's contemporaries, a deformed man was considered unworthy of the stage, certainly not as a tragic protagonist. In Rigoletto, Verdi saw his opportunity to turn convention on its head by depicting a noble ruler as immoral and his court jester, a hunchback, as a character of depth.
I was very happy to write Rigoletto …and it is my best opera.” -Giuseppe Verdi Breaking Conventions “Everyone cried out at the idea of putting a hunchback on the stage well, there you are.
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