| On a stormy night, Rigoletto and Gilda wait outside a lonely inn where Sparafucile and his sister and accomplice Maddalena live. When Gilda insists she still loves the Duke, Rigoletto makes her watch as the Duke, disguised as a soldier and laughing at the fickleness of women, makes love to Maddalena. Rigoletto tells Gilda to go off to Verona, disguised as a boy. When she has gone, Rigoletto hires Sparafucile to murder the Duke and leaves. A storm breaks. Gilda returns to overhear Maddalena urge her brother to spare the stranger and kill Rigoletto instead. Sparafucile agrees to substitute the next person who comes to the inn. Gilda, resolved to sacrifice herself for the Duke, knocks at the door and is stabbed. As the storm subsides, Rigoletto returns to claim his prize—only to hear his supposed victim singing in the distance. Frantically opening the sack containing a body, he finds his dying daughter. Rigoletto cries out that Monterone’s curse has been fulfilled. |
