The Curse
Originally titled La maledizione (The Curse), Verdi based his opera on a play written by Victor Hugo, and later renamed it Rigoletto. The story concerns a curse placed on the womanizing Duke of Mantua and Rigoletto by a nobleman whose daughter had been seduced by the Duke, with the court jesters help. The curse is realized when Rigoletto’s daughter, Gilda, falls in love with the Duke much to her fathers dismay. She sacrifices her life in order to save the Duke from an assassin that was hired by Rigoletto to kill him.
A paraphrase is an original work based on a theme of another, and Liszt chose to utilize the musical material of the famous quartet Bella figlia dell’amore (Beautiful daughter of love) from the final act in Verdi’s opera for his Rigoletto Paraphrase. It’s a scene filled with high drama. While the lecherous Duke of Mantua courts Maddalena, his newest conquest, he’s unknowingly being watched by Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda. Rigoletto brought her to witness the Duke’s unfaithfulness, hoping it would end her infatuation for him. Instead, Gilda reacts with sobs of despair, still hopelessly in love with the Duke, and Rigoletto vows to have him killed by an assassin.
Verdi gave each of the characters in this ‘double duet’ their own musical identity. The main melody Is used for the Duke’s seduction of Maddalena, and she flippantly rejects him in short staccato phrases. Gilda expresses her despair in a fast descending passage before Rigoletto voices his concern about his daughter, and his revenge. Victor Hugo was impressed with Verdi’s music , and how it allowed each of the four characters emotions to be heard together, while remaining clearly distinct from one and other. How Liszt was able to achieve this effect writing only for solo piano was the greatest challenge, and greatest achievement of his Rigoletto Paraphrase.
Liszt decided that the Duke and Maddalena’s flirtations would remain in the middle parts, while Gilda and Rigoletto would stay in the outer parts. While Verdi’s use of orchestration helped to create a distinct musical identity for each character, Liszt masterly follows Verdi’s harmonies and textures but with added dazzling pianistic effects. As the Duke sings his seductive love song to Maddalena, the orchestral accompaniment of woodwind and strings. Liszt put that melody in the right hand, marked cantando, while the left hand offers the orchestral accompaniment in lightly rolled chords. Maddalena’s short phrase, a laughing gesture to his advances, is doubled with the flutes. Liszt puts it octaves, mimicking the orchestration. Gilda expresses her utter despair in a fast descending passage accompanied by strings and an oboe. Liszt also puts it octaves, but it’s of an entirely different character. Maddalena’s is a short staccato phrase, Gilda’s is a long descending line of despair changing into short, 2 note sighs of remorse. Up to this point, the pianists right hand has carried the vocal part, with the left hand providing the orchestral accompaniment. But as Rigoletto begins singing his consolation of his daughter and his own anguish, Liszt marks it ‘appasionato’, in the left hand for the first time. Throughout the entire work, Liszt provides numerous markings such as una corda, tranquillo, dolcissimo, sempre una corda and leggiero to clarify the intent of the musical material. The piece constantly challenges the pianist to think in terms of an instrumentalist and vocalist simultaneously, and to differentiate the subtle orchestral colorings, while realizing each of the four characters voices and emotions.
Franz Liszt actually composed three ‘Paraphrases’ based upon the music of Verdi’s operas. They were completed in 1859 and were performed in a series of concerts given by the pianist Hans von Bulow in Berlin. Liszt opens this masterpiece with a mini overture that he crafted, hinting at the emotions of Maddalena and Gilda. He closes it in a section marked presto, an exhilarating flurry of octaves that only he could write. Have a listen to both the operatic setting and Liszt’s Paraphrase side by side.
It’s worth it!