Verdi - Rigoletto

Georg Solti - RCA Italiano Opera Orchestra & Chorus

Robert Merrill: Rigoletto
Anna Moffo: Gilda
Alfredo Kraus: Duke of Mantua
Rosalind Elias: Maddalena
Ezio Flagello: Sparafucile


Lossless: Ape (img + cue + log) = 474 mb
Lossy: Mp3 (lame "preset standard") = 155 mb
Artwork (full libretto) @ 300dpi = 46 mb

Total playing time: 53:37 + 59:35

Recorded:
June 1963, RCA Italiana Studios, Rome

Released: 1987, RCA GD86506

Track listing:
Preludio
Della mia bella incognita borghese
Questa o quella
Partite? Crudele!
Gran nuova!
Ch'io gli parli
Quel vecchio maledivami!
Pari siamo! io la lingua lui il pugnal
Figlia! Mio padre!
Ah! veglia, o donna
Giovanna, ho dei rimorsi
Che m'ami, deh! ripetimi
Gualtier Malde'; caro nome
Riedo! perche?
Zitti, Zitti, moviamo a vendetta
Ella mi fu rapita
Duca, Duca?
Possente amor mi chiama
Povero Rigoletto
Cortigiani, vil razza dannata!
Mio padre!
Tutte le feste al tempio
Schiudete!
Si, vendetta, tremenda vendetta
E L'ami?
La donna è mobile
è là il vostr'uomo
Un dì, se ben rammentomi
Bella figlia dell'amore
Venti scudi hai detto?
Ah, più non ragiono
Ancor c'è mezz'ora
Dalla vendetta alfin
Chi è mai?
V'ho ingannato, colpevole fui
Lassù in cielo

Reviews:
Gramophone
This has always been a competitive set, and it remains so at mid price on CD. Solti may drive hard at times but there's no doubting the vivid, histrionic quality of his conducting. Alfredo Kraus, as RO commented on this set's last LP appearance, is a ''fine, fiery Duke'', in every way distinguished; he is certainly preferable to his older self elsewhere. Merrill isn't such a compelling artist but he is a strong honest interpreter of the role, who never does much wrong without quite impressing himself on the mind's eye and ear as does Gobbi for Serafin (EMI). Moffo is quite a touching Gilda, but not so individual, to say the least, as Callas (Serafin) or indeed Cotrubas (Giulini on DG), and vocally Sutherland's inferior (Bonynge on Decca), but in some ways her simple reading of the role is preferable to any of these. Support is variable.

This set is not only complete but also gives the score exactly as Verdi wrote it, which allows us to hear Verdi's cadenzas rather than nineteenth- century amendments. The recording is rather boomy and blatant. In absolute terms I couldn't recommend this above the full-price Serafin, Giulini or indeed Sinopoli (Philips) versions, but for a bargain it has much to offer.'

Classicstoday
This complete performance of Rigoletto from 1964 includes not only the Duke's second-act cabaletta, but more gloriously, the cadenza that Verdi composed (and not an abbreviation or ad libitum) for the Duke and Gilda before the "Addio" duet, a lovely moment that sounds like the joyous intertwining of a flute and an oboe. Georg Solti's leadership is very in-your-face, with the brass blaring and tempos generally fast, and while this attitude tends to underplay the opera's pathos, it does make for great excitement. Robert Merrill's Rigoletto is pretty much by-the-numbers with no deep insights, but it's well sung, with exactly the type of Italianate sound Verdi wanted. Alfredo Kraus was in peak form in 1964 and his Duke is by turns elegant, amorous, and biting. He caps "Possente amor" with a brain-splitting high-D. Anna Moffo has some bad habits--she scoops her way into notes in a manner that's supposed to be girlish, but is in fact irritating--but she sings with great warmth and attention to the text when Solti's tempos allow. And in the end, she's very touching. Despite Solti's somewhat brutal approach and Merrill's generic rendering of the title role, this is recommended.

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