Patrick Bade
Rigoletto, Part 1
Summary
“Rigoletto” is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave and based on the 1832 play “Le roi s'amuse” by Victor Hugo. The work, Verdi’s sixteenth in the genre, is widely considered to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi’s middle-to-late career. Patrick Bade plays a variety of the score’s highlights and discusses the opera’s significance. Part 1 of 2.
Patrick Bade
Patrick Bade is a historian, writer, and broadcaster. He studied at UCL and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He was a senior lecturer at Christie’s Education for many years and has worked for the Art Fund, Royal Opera House, National Gallery, and V&A. He has published on 19th- and early 20th-century paintings and historical vocal recordings. His latest book is Music Wars: 1937–1945.
I’ll tell you a very interesting thing. This is something I should have talked about. Rigoletto is an outsider. And Verdi was very, very fascinated by outsider characters. And you could say that, you know, with those three great operas, “Rigoletto”, “Trovatore”, “Traviata”, the characters that engaged in and made him want to write those operas, each is really an outsider. Azucena, also. I mean, she’s a gypsy, she’s not Jewish, but she could be.