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Rigoletto
- Opera in 3 acts, Italian
- Libretto Francesco Maria Piave
- Based on the play Le Roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo
- Opera was performed also with the titles: Viscardello, Clara di Perth, Lionello.
- Time: the Sixteenth century. Place: Mantua.
Act 1, scene 1: Victor Hugo's Le Roi s'amuse.
*First Premieres in different countries
- * Italy 11 March 1851, the world premiere at Teatro La Fenice, Venice
- Austria: 12 May 1852, Vienna
- Hungary: 18 Dec 1852, Budapest
- Czech Republic: 8 Jan 1853, Brno
- Germany: 30 Jan 1853, Stuttgart
- Russia: 12 Feb 1853, Stuttgart
- England: 14 May 1853, London (Covent Garden)
- Spain: 18 Oct 1853, Madrid
- Greece: 28 Oct 1853, Athens
- Portugal: 29 Jan 1854, Lisbon
- United States: 19 Feb 1855, New York
- Argentina: 16 Jun 1855, Buenos Aires
- Brazil: 12 Jan 1856, Rio de Janeiro
- France: 19 Jan 1857, Paris (Théâtre des Italiens)
- Ireland: 4 Aug 1857, Dublin
- Belgium: 22 Nov 1858, Brussels
- Switzerland: 31 Jan 1861, Basle
- Sweden: 3 Jun 1861, Stockholm
- Indonesia: 27 Jan 1868, Surabaja
- Denmark: 18 Sep 1879, Copenhagen
- Tunisia: 12 Apr 1903, Tunis
- Finland: 24 Apr 1917, Helsinki
- Bulgaria: 13 Dec 1920, Sofia
- Lithuania: 3 Nov 1921, Kaunas
- Israel: 30 Oct 1923, Jerusalem
'Bella figlia dell'amore' quartetto scene, depicted by Roberto Focosi in an early edition of the vocal score. Left to right: Duca, Maddalena, Gilda, Rigoletto.
- Characters:
- Rigoletto, the Duke's jester, baritone
- HP Triboulet
- Felice Varesi sang in the first premiere 11 March 1851
- Gaetano Ferri
- Ismaël
- Antonio Cotogni
- Sir Charles Santley
- Adriano Pantaleoni
- Jules-Célestien Devoyod
- Léon Pierre Melchissédec
- Paul Lhérie
- Bogomir Korsov
- Niels Juel Simonsen
- Victor Maurel
- Giuseppe Kaschmann
- Antonio Magini Coletti
- Mattia Battistini
- Francisco d'Andrade
- Jean Noté
- Hermann Devriès
- Antonio Camillo Francesco Pini-Corsi
- Mario Ancona
- Giuseppe Pacini
- Francesco Maria Bonini
- Antonio Scotti
- Ferruccio Francesco Corradetti
- Giuseppe De Luca
- Titta Ruffo
- Pasquale Amato
- Giuseppe Danise
- Amleto Barbieri
- Carlo Galeffi
- Mate Jakov Čulić Dragun
- Luigi Montesanto
- Mario Carmelo Basiola
- Leonard Warren
- Tito Gobbi
- Gino Bechi
- Paolo Silveri
- Giuseppe Taddei
- Robert Merrill
- Pentti Arnold Hilmanpoika Tuominen
- Georg Ots
- Ettore Bastianini
- Rolando Panerai
- Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
- Piero Cappuccilli
- Usko Viitanen
- Ingvar Wixell
- Renato Bruson
- Jorma Hynninen
- Gilda, his daughter, soprano
- Teresa Brambilla sang in the first premiere 11 March 1851
- Fanny Salvini-Donatelli
- Paulina Rivoli
- Marietta Gazzaniga
- Virginia Boccabadati
- Angiolina Bosio
- Marie Sasse
- Teresa Stolz
- Ilma de Murska
- Marietta Piccolomini
- Désirée Artôt de Padilla
- Albina Contarini
- Carlotta Patti
- Clara Louise Kellogg
- Adelina Patti /// No Verdi restored, but here is "Casta diva"
- Marie Rôze
- Dame Emma Albani, DBE
- Alma Fohström sang Gilda in 1881 at Teatro di Reggio nell'Emilia when Giuseppe Verdi was present.
- Ada Adini
- Adalgisa Gabbi
- Elisabeth Frandin
- Linda Brambilla
- Hariclea Darclée
- Isabella Paoli
- Dame Nellie Melba /// "Caro nome"
- Leonilda Paini Gabbi
- Gemma Bellincioni
- Ida Sambo sang both Gilda and Maddalena
- Delfina Battaglia
- Elda Cavalieri
- Regina Isabel Lucía Pacini
- Luisa Tetrazzini /// "Caro nome"
- Giuseppina Huguet
- Antonina Vasilievna Nezhdanova
- Natalina 'Lina' Cavalieri
- Hermine von Flick
- Aino Ackté
- Rosina Buckman
- Florence Easton
- Amelita Galli-Curci
- Alma Gluck
- Lotte Schöne
- Toti Dal Monte
- Hjördis Sophie Tilgmann
- Ayres Borghi-Zerni
- Mercedes Capsir
- Lily Pons
- Bidu Sayão
- Maria Caniglia
- Zinka Milanov
- Jarmila Daubková
- Miliza Elisabeth Korjus
- Hilde Güden
- Maria Callas
- Maaria Eira
- Virginia Zeani
- Dame Joan Alston Sutherland
- Leontyne Price
- Beverly Sills
- Roberta Peters
- Reri Thomson
- Anna Moffo
- Renata Scotto
- Ángeles Gulín
- Ileana Cotrubaș
- Denia Mazzola Gavazzeni
- Ángeles Blancas
- Duke of Mantua, tenor
- HP Francis I of France
- HP Dukes of Mantua in Wikipedia
- Raffaele Angelo Agostino Mirate sang in the first premiere 11 March 1851
- Giovanni Matteo (Mario) De Candia
- Gennaro Ricci
- Emilio Clodovaldo Naudin
- Antonio Giuglini
- Carlo Negrini
- Gustav Walter
- Antonio Aramburo
- Mariano Padilla y Ramos
- Leopoldo Signoretti
- Francesco Marconi
- Nikolai Nikolayevich Figner
- Agustarello / Gustarello Affre
- Fernando De Lucia
- Angelo Angioletti
- Erik Schmedes
- Ferruccio Giannini
- Florencio Constantino
- Antonio Paoli
- Leonid Sobinov
- Enrico Caruso
- Leo Slezak
- Emilio Perea
- Giuseppe Anselmi
- Maurice d'Oisly
- Alfred Piccaver
- Kipras Petrauskas
- Tito Schipa
- Vladimir Rosing
- Beniamino Samuele Benedetto Gigli
- Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
- Sergei Lemeshev
- Josef Schmidt
- Jussi Björling
- Richard Tucker
- Mario Del Monaco
- Mario Lanza
- Giuseppe di Stefano
- Veikko Tyrväinen
- Carlo Bergonzi
- Nicolai Gedda
- Alfredo Kraus
- Fritz Wunderlich
- Carlo Cossutta
- Luciano Pavarotti
- Plácido Domingo
- Roberto Alagna
- Sparafucile, an assassin, bass
- Maddalena, his sister, contralto
- Annetta Casaloni sang in the first premiere 11 March 1851
- Gaetanina Brambilla Marulli
- Marietta Alboni
- Constance Nantier-Didiée
- Vincenzina Ferni
- Ida Sambo sang both Gilda and Maddalena
- Leonilda Paini Gabbi
- Virginia Guerrini
- Maria Verger
- Aino Sylvia Elenius-Urbano
- Ksenija Cindro
- Fedora Barbieri
- Giulietta Simionato
- Anna Maria Rota
- Shirley Verrett
- Teresa Berganza
- Fiorenza Cossotto
- Conte di Ceprano, bass
- Andrea Bellini sang in the first premiere 11 March 1851
- Antonio "Selva" Scremin
- Piero Cappuccilli
- Countess Ceprano, his wife, mezzo-soprano
- Luigia Morselli sang in the first premiere
- Helen Frances Mapleson
- Phyllis Eleanor Sjöström
- Kiri Te Kanawa
- Matteo Borsa, a courtier, tenor
- Count Monterone, baritone
- Feliciano Ponz sang in the first premiere
- Paolo Damini
- Fernando Corena
- Ruggero Raimondi
- Matti Salminen
- Marullo, baritone
- Francesco De Kunnerth sang in the first premiere
- Ture Ara
- Pentti Arnold Hilmanpoika Tuominen
- Giovanna, Gilda's Nurse, mezzo-soprano
- Rigoletto, the Duke's jester, baritone
- Conductors:
- Gaetano Mares conducted in the first premiere 11 March 1851
- Eugenio Cavallini
- Arturo Toscanini
- Egisto Emilio Tango
- Tullio Serafin
- Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet
- Fausto Cleva
- Fernando Previtali
- Gianandrea Gavazzeni
- Francesco Molinari Pradelli
- Carlo Maria Giulini
- Rafael Kubelík (La Scala; Metropolitan Opera)
- Peter Maag Verdi Medal 1973
- Riccardo Muti
- Riccardo Chailly, OMRI (1982 with Ponnelle; 1989 Decca)
- Stage directors:
- Dr. Sandor Hevesi , née Alexander Hoffmann Unforgettable Verdi performances 1910-1930 with conductor Egisto Emilio Tango
- Vladimir Rosing (In 1948 at the National Opera Association of Los Angeles)
- Franco Zeffirelli
- Rolando Panerai (2013 and 2019 at Teatro Carlo Felice, Genova)
- Otto Schenk (1989, Metropolitan Opera, Panni cond., with Nucci, Pavarotti and June Anderson)
- Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (also a 1982 film with Wixell, Pavarotti, Riccardo Chailly)
- Giancarlo Del Monaco (Essen)