In 1851 the opera "Rigoletto" was performed at Teatro La Fenice in Venice. These were the stage directions for the First act (2nd scene): "The most deserted end of a blind street. On the left, a house of decent aspect with a small courtyard surrounded by a wall. Inside the courtyard a large tree and a marble bench; a door in the wall onto the street; upstairs, a terrace resting on arcades. The first floor door opens onto the terrace, from where there is a staircase leading downstairs. On the street there is a high garden wall and one side of Ceprano's palace. It is night".
It is now worth considering how such a small, charming house has become part of Mantuan history. At first it was on/y fantasy, but time has turned it into part of our history.

When in 1850 Giuseppe Verdi was asked to set a play to music (based on the literary masterpiece "Triboulet" by Victor Hugo, afterwards adapted by librettist Francesco Maria Piave who was to entitle the melodrama "The Malediction") the idea appealed to him even though he feared that the opera would not be accepted by the authorities for political reasons. Indeed, the management of La Fenice and the police authorities forbade its performance, claiming it might offend certain illustrious people.

Bearing this in mind, Verdi and Piave agreed to set their opera ( as referred by letters) in late Renaissance Mantua. They omitted the name of the lords who had brought splendour to the town, referred to the Duke of Mantua only in vogue terms and renamed the opera "Rigoletto". The Austrian government accepted this new version and the opera was performed at La Fenice on 1 March, 1851 with great success. If we consider the setting of the opera in the town of the river Mincio, it seems likely that certain elements were selected and then adapted. Apart from the Duke and the political situation, let's consider the town-planning. For example: ". . . at the most deserted end of o blind street" say the stage directions; but nowadays the house is neither situated in a deserted spot, nor in o blind street. Poetic licence apart, when the opera was created many of the buildings corresponded to reality, i.e. the proximity of the house to the ducal residence, which was ideal for o member of the staff especially for a court jester. Today this house looks onto on airy square. Up to the early twentieth century this end of the square might hove been dark and deserted, since the area was split in two by a building connecting the Ducal Palace to St. Peter's church. That small and deserted square was called Piazzetta della legna (wood¬shed square).

As for the rest of the description of the house, many elements fit the scene described. The most charming detail is probably the small loggia, now adorned with flowers, known by opera lovers as "the balcony of Gilda".Between 1976-77, owing to the shameful state of preservation of the house, conservative restoration was carried out with the help of specialists and scholars thanks to the sponsorship of the Cassa di Risparmio di Verona, Vicenza, Belluno e Ancona.

The restoration revealed structures confirming the belief that the perimeter wolfs of the house were port of the city walls, thereby showing the remote origins of the building. The restoration revealed the outer port of the building looking onto vicolo Gollo. Inside, evidence of typical Medieval buildings were brought to light (cobble-stones and bricks). The building also shows signs of fifteenth century restoration.
Several old maps prove in different ways that the house existed.

What emerges from these mops is that the entrance to the house appears to hove been on Canonica (Parsonage) square and not on what is now Sordello square. The side facing Sordello square was probably the back of the house. During the Renaissance it was restored and given a pretty loggia of fifteenth century Tuscan, taste composed of marble columns holding up a wooden architrave. Two thirteenth century marble columns in the ground floor portico contribute to the elegance of the entrance. These probably come from a cloister in the parsonage, which, if true, would prove that the sixteenth century repairs modified the previous structure.
The house was granted by the Cathedral Chapter to the canons or priests of the Diocese, some of whom were men of great culture.

One of them, in particular; may have left an important mark. Indeed, several frescoes, two capitals and a number of decorations on the ground floor wooden ceiling display the Arrivabene's initials, suggesting that a canon in the family ordered the renovation when he was o tenant. 

A statue of Rigoletto, the fictitious inhabitant of the house, was set in the garden in 1978.