happy. Rigoletto promises

to avenge him and himself. But Gilda, who loves the Duke, begs her father not to do it. Her entreaties, however, go with the winds. He is resolved upon revenge, and we see him repeat-ing the vow as the curtain falls.

Act Four

The Scene: a tavern on the outskirts of the city. Here the assassin Sparafucile disposes of his victims. The stage is divided in two by a wall: to the right a street, to the left a tavern — so that the spectators see at one and the same time what goes on inside the tavern, and in the street.

Rigoletto has hired the assassin to dispatch the Duke, who has been lured to the tavern to flirt with Maddalena, Sparafucile's sister. Rigoletto and Gilda arrive, and he feels that the hour of vengeance is at hand. A storm threatens to break, and the night is pitch dark. Soon the Duke enters the tavern and calls for wine to be brought him, then bursts into the most famous song in the opera, "Woman Is Fickle."

Outside, the jester and the assas-sin meet in passing. Maddalena appears in the tavern, and the Duke sets about flirting with her, as he does with all women. At once is heard the song "Fair Daughter of Love," in which all four take part: the Duke sings his passion, Maddalena answers him with coquetry and playfulness, Rigoletto bids his daughter forget her lover, and Gilda sings her despair at this lover's falseness...

After Rigoletto has proved to his daughter that her lover is a fickle traitor, he orders her to go home,

to put on men's clothes, and to flee on horseback to Verona, where he will join her afterward. She departs; then Sparafucile comes out to him, and the two set about settling the plan of revenge. He gives the assassin half the agreed price, saying that he will return at midnight to see the corpse and pay the remaining sum.

The darkness deepens, and the Duke tells Sparafucile of his wish to spend his night at the tavern, and withdraws to a room on the upper floor. But Maddalena, who has taken a fancy to the Duke, implores her brother not to make an end of him. The assassin, however, has pledged himself to kill him and has taken half the fee, and he cannot break his word. At last his sister persuades him to dispatch the first stranger who knocks at the tavern door and to substitute his corpse for the Duke's.

Meanwhile Gilda, who has dis-guised herself in a rider's dress, has returned to the square outside the tavern, and this bargain strikes her ear. She

resolves to sacrifice herself for the sake of her faithless lover. The wild storm roars as the clock announces midnight. Gilda knocks at the tavern door, asking lodging for the night. The door opens; but scarcely has she crossed the threshold when she is struck with a thrust and falls to the ground.

And so Rigoletto returns, and the assassin delivers to him his daughter's body, tied fast in a sack, and he carries it off to throw it into the river. But he hears the Duke's voice in his room repeating his sweet song, "Woman Is Fickle!" His limbs shake with terror; he goes to the sack and opens it, and beholds his daughter breathing her last, breathing out with it her final farewell to the world in the song "In Heaven Above." And as she becomes a lifeless corpse, Rigoletto knows for certain that Count Monterone's curse has hit its mark in the end. He cries out once more, "Ah, the curse!" and throws himself upon Gilda's cold body, a prey to overwhelm-ing grief...

Nexa Solution

Nexa

Nexa Solution

For all household insects of every kind

The Agricultural Remedies Company

for the control of insects and plant diseases

Beirut — Nejmeh Square — Sahat al-Izhar — Telephone 30636