Peter Dvorský sings French & Italian Operatic Arias

Giuseppe Verdi came to dominate the world of opera in 19th century Italy. The flowering of his career largely coincided with the movement towards Italian national unity and it was soon observed that the composer's name itself formed an acronym for the new king, Vittorio Emanuele, re d'ltalia.

The opera Rigoletto, based on Victor Hugo's Le roi s'amuse, at first met difficulty from the censors, with its original story of a profligate king. Eventually the villain of the piece became the Duke of Mantua, served by the hunch-back court jester Rigoletto, a willing assistant in his disreputable amorous escapades. The story, at first under the title La maledizione, The Curse, announced in the opening Prelude, deals with the curse placed on Rigoletto by the father of one of the Duke's victims. Gilda, Rigoletto's closely guarded daughter, is wooed by the Duke in disguise, and then, with