36yearsago.com

Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing & friends.

Day 87 — Tonight it’sa Italian—Rigoletto
28-October-1971 (Thur.)


TRANSCRIPT

Typical day. Starting to put in a routine and seem to be getting a lot done. However, my practicing is the one thing that always angers me. Today, it didn’t seem to get any better.

Went to Rigoletto, by Verdi. I enjoyed it. The famous “La Donna Mobile” was sort of funny. I didn’t go for all of the music.

One problem when going to a concert is that it cuts out most of my studying and playing guitar, which I would do at night.


REFLECTIONS

The blog says it all today. Just a typical day. At night, I get to Verdi’s opera, Rigoletto. It’sa Italian night.

Verdi. Giuseppe Verdi was a successful, prolific, highly regarded, 19th-century Italian operatic composer. (That's a lot of adjectives.) His famous works include La traviata, Il trovatore, Aida, Rigoletto, Falstaff and many others. Verdi is also know for his famous Requiem.

The opera. Rigoletto is the story of a hunchback jester in the Duke’s court, who has a curse placed on him by noblemen, just because he was mocking them. Come on, chill dudes. After some twists and turns, and a kidnapping, the opera ends with the curse on Rigoletto coming true. The most famous aria in Rigoletto, “La donna mobile” (you've heard it), has the Duke singing about women, after he loses his love—Gilda, who is none other than Rigoletto’s daughter. Yes, these opera plots are thick and heavy, but always enjoyable.

Again, I regret that I can’t include audio selections as part of this blog. It would be so cool.

Till tomorrow.

John

- - - -

Tags: opera, Verdi, Rigoletto