Left alone, Rigoletto finally removes the blindfold and realises the terrible truth. What he doesn’t know, however, is that the victim is none other than Gilda, who the courtiers believe to be his mistress. Rigoletto joins them, agreeing to wear a blindfold as part of the plot. They tell him that they plan to kidnap the Countess Ceprano and ask for his help. On his way home Rigoletto meets a group of courtiers. Innocently, Gilda believes he is a poor student named Gualtier Maldé. She meets him again immediately after Rigoletto departs and they declare their feelings. Gilda is secretly meeting the Duke – she first encountered him church and fell instantly in love. But unbeknownst to Rigoletto his parental precautions have already failed. Here, hidden away from the scandalous court, lives his innocent young daughter Gilda. As Rigoletto enters his house he feels like another man. On a dark street Rigoletto has a strange encounter: he meets the assassin Sparafucile and ponders the similarities between their two professions: he stabs with words, the assassin with a blade. The Count, deeply hurt, curses the Duke and Rigoletto. When one of them, Count Monterone, confronts the Duke in front of his court for seducing his daughter, Rigoletto – in forced loyalty to his Duke – responds with humiliation and malice.

He amuses the Duke with his cruel wit, but in mocking the husbands and fathers of women the Duke has seduced, he is provoking their anger. The hunchback Rigoletto is a jester at the court of the playboy Duke of Mantua.

Rigoletto met opera