Thoughts onRigoletto

Abstract

The author discusses the traditional interpretations of the principal dramatis personae in Verdi's Rigoletto, suggesting that the opera expresses the composer's unconscious but highly perceptive and intuitive exploration of: (i) paranoid and perverse father-daughter oedipal dynamics as enacted between Rigoletto and Gilda; (ii) a folie-à-deux sado-masochistic relationship between Rigoletto and the Duke; (iii) the avoidance of conscious guilt and responsibility for Rigoletto's part in the tragedy through the rejection of insight achieved via massive projection, an addiction to mania, and perversion. In this respect Rigoletto is compared with King Lear. Some technical aspects of Verdi's compositional style employed to portray the contrasting characters of the protagonists are analysed. The paper also touches on Verdi's own possible unconscious (as well as conscious) investment in this particular opera, noting similarities between Verdi's portrait of the tragic, hunchback jester and his own self-depiction. The author notes similarities and contrasts between his analysis of the opera and recent papers by Hudson (1992),Tarnopolsky (1995)and Bergstein (2003)on the same subject.

La traviataand Oedipus

“…Recent opera‐based IJP papers centre on some major aspect of psychopathology central to the dramatic action, focusing particularly on how the psychopathology might be illustrated by the music. Rusbridger (), for example, has explored the manic and murderous masquerade concealing the internal emptiness of the narcissist in Don Giovanni , and psychotic projective identification regarding envy and jealousy in Otello (Rusbridger, ); Hindle and Godsill (2006) have examined sanity and madness in Julietta ; Bergstein () has investigated the wish for annihilation in Tristan und Isolde ; and Grier () has discussed themes of sadism, sexual violence and voyeurism in Rigoletto . In comparison, what does La Traviata have to offer?…”