Verdi was the surname of the composer who wrote the opera Rigoletto.
Giuseppe Verdi composed Rigoletto to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. The libretto was based on Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse, which had already caused controversy in France because of its depiction of a powerful monarch and court life.
Rigoletto premiered at La Fenice in Venice on 11 March 1851. Its plot centers on the court jester Rigoletto, his daughter Gilda, and the Duke of Mantua. The opera combines intense dramatic scenes with memorable melodies, including the Duke’s “La donna è mobile.”
Verdi’s surname is often confused with the names of other major Italian opera composers, especially Puccini, Rossini, and Donizetti. Rigoletto belongs to Verdi’s middle period and is one of the three operas commonly grouped with Il trovatore and La traviata as his great trilogy of the early 1850s.