Why was Rigoletto banned?

The story at the heart of Le Roi s'Amuse and Rigoletto posed a double threat to 19th-century sensibilities: it featured both a morally corrupt, womanizing monarch and calculated murder. This combination proved deeply troubling to authorities, making the tale inherently problematic for public performance. Censors intervened repeatedly throughout the opera's development, targeting these controversial elements at multiple points in the creative process.