Liszt drew on three themes from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” in this glittering virtuoso work; its climax is the finale with the theme in the quartet from Act III “Bella figlia dell’amore”.
If one ignores the fact that at this point in the opera the betrayal of Gilda's love is made known, the work offers no sign that it was written at a time of deep depression: Liszt’s hope of legally marrying Princess von Sayn-Wittgenstein was slowly disappearing. Maybe Liszt's opera paraphrases are therefore to be understood as memories of happier times in Weimar.
李斯特在這部華麗炫技的作品中藉鑒了威爾第歌劇《弄臣》中的三個主題;其高潮是終曲,採用了第三幕四重唱“Bella figlia dell'amore”的主題。
如果忽略歌劇中吉爾達的愛情被背叛這一情節,這部作品絲毫沒有透露出創作於李斯特深陷抑鬱的時期:他與馮·賽恩-維特根斯坦公主合法結婚的希望正逐漸破滅。或許,李斯特對歌劇的改編可以理解為他對魏瑪時期美好時光的回憶。