The Portland Opera hosted the opening night of Giuseppe Verdi’s 1851 opera Rigoletto at Keller Auditorium on Friday, May 4, which brought the house to its feet and left the audience wanting more. The plot of Rigoletto revolves around the womanizing Duke of Mantua and his court jester Rigoletto who cruelly mocks the victims of the Duke’s escapades while privately despising his own buffoonery. “Assassins wound with weapons; I wound with words,” Rigoletto laments.

While the Duke is an abhorred villain, Rigoletto is the unfortunate sidekick forced to play along. Tangled up with the drama is Gilda, Rigoletto’s daughter. A Rapunzel-like character, Gilda is locked away in a tower by her overprotective father, combing her flaxen locks while longing for a lover.