is some admirable declamatory music in it, which seems to foreshadow the style of ‘Rigoletto,’ and the sleep-walking scene, though old-fashioned in structure, is really impressive.  After ‘Macbeth’ came another series of works which are now forgotten.  Among them was ’I Masnadieri,’ which was written for Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1847.  Although the principal part was sung by Jenny Lind, the work was a complete failure, and was pronounced by the critic Chorley to be the worst opera ever produced in England.  Passing quickly by ‘Il Corsaro’ (1848), ‘La Battaglia di Legnano’ (1849), ‘Luisa Miller’ (1849) and ‘Stiffelio’ (1850), all of which have dropped completely out of the current repertory, we come to the brilliant period in which Verdi produced in succession three works which, through all changes of taste and fashion, have manfully held their place in popular favour—­’Rigoletto,’ ‘Il Trovatore,’ and ‘La Traviata.’  ‘Rigoletto’ (1851) is founded upon Victor Hugo’s drama, ‘Le Roi s’amuse.’  The locale of the story is changed, and the King of France becomes a Duke of Mantua, but otherwise the original scheme of the work remains unaltered.  Rigoletto, the Duke’s jester, has an only daughter, Gilda, whom he keeps closely immured in an out-of-the-way part of the city, to preserve her from the vicious influence of the court.  The amorous Duke, however, has discovered her retreat, and won her heart in the disguise of a student.  The courtiers, too, have found out that Rigoletto is in the habit of visiting a lady, and jumping to the conclusion that she is his mistress, determine to carry her off by night in order to pay the jester out for the bitter insults which he loves to heap upon them.  Their plan succeeds, and Gilda is conveyed to the Palace.  There she is found by her father, and to his horror she confesses that she loves the Duke.  He determines to punish his daughter’s seducer, and hires a bravo named Sparafucile to put him out of the way.  This worthy beguiles the Duke, by means of the charms of his sister Maddalena, to a lonely inn on the banks of the river, promising to hand over his body to Rigoletto at midnight.  Maddalena pleads tearfully for the life of her handsome lover, but Sparafucile is a man of honour, and will not break his contract with the jester.  Rigoletto has paid for a body, and a body he must have.  However, he consents, should any stranger visit the inn that night, to kill him in the Duke’s place.  Gilda, who is waiting in the street, hears this and makes up her mind to die instead of her lover.  She enters the house, and is promptly murdered by Sparafucile.  Her body, sewn up in a sack, is handed over at the appointed hour to Rigoletto.  The jester, in triumph, is about to hurl the body into the river, when he hears the Duke singing in the distance.  Overcome by a horrible suspicion, he opens the sack and is confronted by the body of his daughter.