Rigoletto (Guiseppe Verdi) - Italy, 400 years ago. Rigoletto, the hunchback, is Court Jester to the not-very-nice Duke of Mantua. Rigoletto's obsession is to save his daughter, Gilda, from the Duke and his court. Claymation. Barry J.C. Purves captures the malevolent pleasures and crushing sorrows of the court of Mantua in his atmospheric rendition of Verdi's Rigoletto.