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Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House
Event: Rigoletto
Date: February 10th until March 1st
Ugly and hunchbacked, Rigoletto is not a character who has the ladies swooning around him.
However, he is very good at his job, which is to entertain the Duke of Mantua as his court jester.
While the nobleman is very pleased with his unfortunate-looking joker's work, there are those who find his buffoonery annoying and they seek to bring him down a peg or two.
The ugly man is accused of keeping a mistress by one disgruntled victim of his sharp tongue but, as the revelation is made, attention switches to Monterone, who enters the court and blasts the Duke for seducing his daughter.
Never one to miss an opportunity, Rigoletto mercilessly mocks the angry individual, an act which would come back to haunt him later.
Montertone places a curse on the nobleman and his jester and the wave of hatred towards the hunchbacked funnyman grows.
His detractors kidnap his daughter Gilda and deliver her to the Duke, who regularly boasts of his conquests with countless women.
The young girl falls for the royal's sweet tongue, with Rigoletto none the wiser.
When he reveals Gilda is, in fact, his daughter, the courtiers are beside themselves with joy at his embarrassment.
Hell-bent on revenge, he hires an unscrupulous mercenary to dispose of the Duke, but the body which is eventually brought to him is not the one he was expecting.
Opera fans will love this Giuseppe Verdi production and something else they will enjoy is a suite at the luxury London hotel the 41.
Before the show, guests can enjoy a three-course table d'hote dinner for two and look forward to a bottle of Veuve Cliquot for later by choosing the Get More From Your Stay package.
