Rigoletto (1981)

At the court of the Duke of Mantua, no woman is safe from the lust of the profligate Duke, and no husband from the taunts of his hunchbacked jester, Rigoletto. Rigoletto mocks Ceprano, husband of the Duke’s latest conquest, to the amusement of the courtiers. A procession taking Count Monterone to execution interrupts them; he is doomed because he had violently attacked the Duke for seducing his daughter He curses the Duke and Rigoletto The courtier Marullo plans to play a trick on Rigoletto by stealing the girl that the jester keeps locked up in his house; everyone supposes she is his mistress. No one knows that the Duke has already noticed the girl, who is really Rigoletto’s daughter, Gilda, and that he has already gained entrance to the house to declare his love.

That night, Sparafucile, a professional assassin, offers Rigoletto his services. Gilda believes that the Duke is a young student, Walter Malde, and does not tell her father of his visit. The courtiers arrive to break into the house and Rigoletto, deceived by the darkness into thinking they are breaking into Ceprano’s house and not his own, agrees to assist them. He puts on a mask, which is actually a blindfold, and waits while the courtiers carry off Gilda. Too late, in despair, he realizes that he has been tricked. and that the curse of Monterone is being fulfilled.

At the Ducal palace the courtiers tell of their exploit and gloat over their success. The Duke is delighted that Gilda is in the palace; the court mocks Rigoletto, who does not dare show his grief too openly. A page from the Duchess requests the Duke’s presence, but is told that he is busy. As Rigoletto suddenly guesses where Gilda is, the girl herself, distraught and sobbing, runs into his arms. Even the cruel courtiers are taken aback when they discover that she is his daughter, and leave them together. Gilda tries to stop her father from avenging himself on the man she still loves, although she now realizes that she is ruined.

At an inn by the riverside, at night, a thunderstorm is gathering. For 20 sovereigns, Rigoletto has hired Sparafucile to assassinate the Duke; Sparafucile tells Maddalena, his sister, that her next customer must be dispatched, but she is never aware of the identity of the victim. Out- side, Rigoletto and Gilda watch the Duke arrive, he makes advances to Maddalena, and captivates her. Gilda, spying on her lover, realizes that he entirely deserves the fate Rigoletto has planned for him, and agrees to precede Rigoletto to Verona, disguised as a youth, where he will join her, fleeing Mantua forever. Maddalena sends the Duke into the bedroom and argues with her brother about murdering him, for she finds him attractive. Sparafucile yields to her, and agrees to kill anyone who comes to the inn before midnight, and substitute one body for another. Gilda overhears their plans, and knowing that no one is likely to come to the inn at this late hour in a storm, deliberately walks into their trap; she still loves the Duke, in spite of his fickleness. Sparafucile stabs her and throws her, dying, into a sack and hands it over to the jester when he arrives to savor his revenge. Suddenly, through the night, the Duke’s voice can be heard, and Rigoletto to his horror realizes that he has been tricked. He opens the sack and finds it is Gilda who has been assassinated; she revives for a moment to beg his forgiveness before she dies, and he collapses over her corpse, realizing that in seeking revenge, he has brought the ultimate horror upon himself. Monterone’s curse has been fulfilled.