It’s not easy being the hype man for a jerk.

The story may be set in medieval Italy, but Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto is a guy we can all relate to. He has a terrible boss and a toxic work environment. He’s constantly body-shamed and bullied. And his greatest efforts to keep his work and home lives separate fail spectacularly. When the Duke — his boss and a notorious player — seduces and abandons Rigoletto’s innocent daughter, it’s time for revenge.

The drama is both heightened and made more human by Verdi’s incandescent score, filled with a range of toe-tapping tunes; silvery, sweet songs of love; thundering rage; revenge arias; and the most famous quartet in all of opera.

Don’t miss this grandest of grand operas.