In April 1850, Verdi signed a contract for a new opera to be performed for the 1851 Venice carnival season. The subject had not yet been chosen, but he wrote to his librettist, Piave:
April 28, 1850:…I have in mind a subject that would be one of the greatest creations of the modern theatre if the police would only allow it. Who knows?…at least there are no conspiracies in it. Have a try. The subject is grand, immense and there's a character in it who is one of the greatest creations that the theatre of all countries and all times can boast. The subject is Le Roi s'amuse and the character I'm speaking about is Triboulet.…Run about the city and find someone of influence to get us permission to do Le roi s'amuse.…I shall expect you at Busseto, but not now, after they've agreed to the subject.May 8, 1850:… Le roi s'amuse is the greatest subject and perhaps the greatest drama of modern times. Triboulet is a creation worthy of Shakespeare!
He instructed Piave to stay as close to the original as possible. It they could not use the original title, it should be changed to La maledizione di Saint-Villier, since the curse was at the center of the plot.
Piave assured him there would be no problem. By October the cast was set, and Verdi was working on the score. But Piave had been wrong. The President of the Teatro la Fenice had doubts, and Verdi was asked to submit a libretto to the Austrian military censors for approval. Verdi realized this meant there might be some problems and indicated he would be willing to make changes. The reaction of the censors was devastating: the King is portrayed as evil; evil triumphs; the curse is too brutal; Blanche's (Gilda's) act is essentially suicide, but is not pictured as a sin, and there is no priest at the end to give her last rites; the body in the sack is objectionable; etc., etc. The Military Governor of Venetia absolutely forbade the presentation of the opera, with or without changes! However, there was no time to prepare a new offering for the carnival, and much of the work on the now titled La Maledizione had been done. Negotiations were opened, and changes agreed upon: the main character would not be a king, but a duke in either France or Italy; Hugo's characters would be kept, but their names would be changed (causing some difficulty, since the music had been written, and substitute names had to be which fit; the Duke was to be enticed to the inn by a ruse, not initiate the visit himself; Verdi would be allowed to decide on the sack. He insisted on Rigoletto's deformity: "A hunchback who sings? Why not?...To me there is something really fine in representing on stage this character outwardly so ugly and ridiculous, inwardly so impassioned and full of love". The changes were made, and although the première was postponed, Rigoletto finally opened on March 11, 1851.
Ironically, the change of the setting from France to Italy meant the audience could relate more closely to the opera, and it was a great success. The critics weren't sure; they didn't know what to think. It was all so new, and in an exception to the usual custom, they had not been allowed to attend the dress rehearsal, thus having no time to consider their reviews. Reactions were varied. Some attacked it as immoral; one called it "a real California — a gold mine — of transgressions", but another wrote: "[the music is] of a truly new kind...easy, flowing, spontaneous which either speaks softly to your soul, or awakens you to pity, or horrifies you, according to the development of the drama".
Rigoletto soon travelled all over Europe. Parisians, who could not see the play which was its source, raved over it. It reached San Francisco in 1854, opened the new opera house in Cairo, Egypt and was the first opera to be recorded electrically. However, there were still some who disapproved. In one Naples production, the locale was changed to Australia! In the 1920s some women sitting in boxes at the Metropolitan Opera in New York turned their chairs around to protest at the scene in which Gilda emerges from the bedroom after she has been raped. Nevertheless, while critics disagree about some of Verdi's other operas, all agree that Rigoletto is a masterpiece. It is now one of the most frequently performed operas in the repertory.
When Verdi was later asked a few years after its opening which of his operas was his favorite, he replied, "Speaking as an amateur, La traviata, as a professional, Rigoletto". He declared it revolutionary and said it was the best subject he had ever set to music.