Rigoletto Melodramma di F.M. Piave Musica del Maestro G. Verdi Al più caro de' suoi amici, l'egregio Avvocato Antonio Vasselli in pegno di gratissimo cuore questa edizione consacra Giovanni Ricordi ... Riduzioni per Canto con accomp. di Pfte. [F.40] ... [Piano-vocal score]

Milano: Giovanni Ricordi [PNs 23071-23090], 1852. Oblong folio. Newly bound in quarter black cloth with matching black paper boards, titling to spine gilt. 1f. (recto title incorporating a fine lithographic illustration of a scene from the opening of Act III of the opera by Corbeita after a drawing by Focosi, verso blank), 1f. (recto index of 20 numbers, verso named cast list with statement regarding the first performance), 5-231, [i] (blank) pp. Engraved. Each number with separate as well as continuous pagination.

Named cast includes Mirate as the Duke, Varesi as Rigoletto, Brambilla as Gilda, and Ponz as Sparafucile. Ricordi blindstamp to lower left corner without date.

Some browning; minor to moderate foxing; tear to inner portion of pp. 165-66 and pp. 183-84; blindstamp partially trimmed. First Edition. One of two issues (the absence of a date on the Ricordi blindstamp may indicate a slightly later printing). Hopkinson 53A (variant). Fuld pp. 452-53. Crawford p. 605. Chusid p. 141 and pp. 686-87. Title page illustrated in Gatti: Immagini, 63.

Rigoletto, in three acts to a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave after Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse, was first performed in Venice at the Teatro La Fenice on 11 March 1851.

"The première, with a cast that included Raffaele Mirate (Duke), Felice Varesi (Rigoletto) and Teresa Brambilla (Gilda), was an enormous success, and the opera, in spite of continuing problems with local censors, almost immediately became part of the basic repertory, being performed more than 250 times in its first ten years. Rigoletto has never lost this position and remains one of the most frequently performed operas in the international repertory. ... Rigoletto is almost always placed as the true beginning of Verdi's maturity, the essential dividing line between 'early' works and the succession of repertory pieces that will follow." Roger Parker in Grove Music Online.