BaL 15.06.13 - Verdi's Rigoletto

**slarty** · 07-06-13, 21:54

I'll be curious to hear how much of a mention the Maggio Musicale/Gavazzeni recording gets. It is the best of them all and very few people know about it.
It was originally recorded by RICORDI (bought out by BMG) and it did not have much of a release in Britain but with Alfredo Kraus, Renata Scotto and Ettore Bastianini as the best
Rigoletto I have ever heard it could hardly go wrong, but it seems to have been forgotten. Bastianini was even better than Gobbi(and that is saying something) and Alfredo Kraus was the prince of tenors and the greatest Duke of Mantua I ever saw or heard. Superbly conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni.
Tremendous!

slarty

**umslopogaas** · 07-06-13, 22:25

Well ... I'll look out for the version conducted by Gavazzeni, but I dont have it, have never heard of it and the Rough Guide to Opera doesnt mention it. Neither does the Penguin Guide 2010. I'll take your word that Bastianini was better than Gobbi, and that IS saying something, and by the way, with Gobbi you get Callas: who is Gilda on the Gavazzeni recording?

Is this Gavazzeni recording currently commercially available? R3 wont consider it if one cant buy it, however good it is, though they have been known to mention versions that arent available just now, but are promised by the companies to come back on the market again soon.

**Il Grande Inquisitor** · 08-06-13, 00:09

Originally posted by slarty View Post

I'll be curious to hear how much of a mention the Maggio Musicale/Gavazzeni recording gets. It is the best of them all and very few people know about it.
It was originally recorded by RICORDI (bought out by BMG) and it did not have much of a release in Britain but with Alfredo Kraus, Renata Scotto and Ettore Bastianini as the best
Rigoletto I have ever heard it could hardly go wrong, but it seems to have been forgotten. Bastianini was even better than Gobbi(and that is saying something) and Alfredo Kraus was the prince of tenors and the greatest Duke of Mantua I ever saw or heard. Superbly conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni.
Tremendous!

slarty

I agree with you 100%, slarty. Ettore Bastianini and Renata Scotto are superb - especially in the tremendous 'Si, vendetta' duet to end Act II. Bastianini had a far more beautiful baritone than Gobbi, although the latter was a superb actor. Alfredo Kraus is in remarkably fresh voice, although I confess to preferring Carlo Bergonzi on the DG recording with the same cast, with the unfortunate substitution of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (never an ideal Verdian) for Bastianini (the Italian baritone in the advance stages of cancer which was to cruelly cut short his career in its prime). The only drawback to the recording is its sound - terribly boxy, especially in its BMG transfer.

Originally posted by umslopogaas View Post

Is this Gavazzeni recording currently commercially available? R3 wont consider it if one cant buy it, however good it is, though they have been known to mention versions that arent available just now, but are promised by the companies to come back on the market again soon.

Yes, it's currently available on Urania:

Amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rigoletto-Teatro-della-Pergola-Firenze/dp/B005FGMBLA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370649303&sr=8-1&keywords=gavazzeni+rigoletto

and I find the sound marginally better than the BMG issue. Very wide stereo - in the quartet, you really do get the Duke and Maddalena from one speaker, Rigoletto and Gilda from the other. Mercury recorded this, licensed under Ricordi, so I can't believe that a better transfer isn't available. Philip Hope-Wallace reviewed it very critically in Gramophone with the result that it was never reissued in the UK until its first CD appearance in 2001.

**Il Grande Inquisitor** · 08-06-13, 00:12

Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post

Teatro Regio di Parma, Massimo Zanetti (DVD/Blu-ray)

This is part of the Tutto Verdi series on Unitel/ C Major and a performance I praised highly in a recent IRR survey. It features Leo Nucci and Nino Machaidze as Rigoletto and Gilda.

**mikealdren** · 08-06-13, 08:34

It's only the last act but Toscanini's live performance is simply one of the best recordings I have of anything and was the performance that persuaded me, many years ago, that I really do love opera.
Mike

**Eine Alpensinfonie** · 14-06-13, 18:08

I'm really quite surprised that one of Verdi's best known operas has attracted so little discussion. Compare this with Brahms's 2nd symphony, which has had more responses than any other BaL since the forum started.

**ferneyhoughgeliebte** · 14-06-13, 18:16

Originally posted by Eine Alpensinfonie View Post

I'm really quite surprised that one of Verdi's best known operas has attracted so little discussion. Compare this with Brahms's 2nd symphony, which has had more responses than any other BaL since the forum started.

I regret that I find it very difficult to get very excited about the work - no, seriously, I do regret this: others whose opinion I greatly value speak of it in awed terms that I just can't get. I don't dislike it (for all its melodramatic bits) and the Quartet is a pulse-quickener; but it's not a work that it would break my heart if I missed a performance due to having a prior engagement.

My hope is that the glorious RO will reveal wonderfulnesses in the score that have hitherto completely escaped me. Even so, I'd rather he was discussing Otello, Falstaff - or a Bruckner Symphony.

**Barbirollians** · 14-06-13, 18:28

Callas and Gobbi for me - have never felt the need for any other recording.

**DracoM** · 14-06-13, 19:09

Sutherland/Pavarotti / Milnes for me.

**verismissimo** · 14-06-13, 20:02

Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post

I regret that I find it very difficult to get very excited about the work - no, seriously, I do regret this: others whose opinion I greatly value speak of it in awed terms that I just can't get. I don't dislike it (for all its melodramatic bits) and the Quartet is a pulse-quickener; but it's not a work that it would break my heart if I missed a performance due to having a prior engagement.

My hope is that the glorious RO will reveal wonderfulnesses in the score that have hitherto completely escaped me. Even so, I'd rather he was discussing Otello, Falstaff - or a Bruckner Symphony.

All of the above.

I usually enjoy Verdi's operas when I'm there, and know a handful of them intimately, but I find that I don't ever put them on between times.

Recently I've been steeped (again) in the Ring.

**Barbirollians** · 14-06-13, 21:45

Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post

My hope is that the glorious RO will reveal wonderfulnesses in the score that have hitherto completely escaped me. Even so, I'd rather he was discussing Otello, Falstaff - or a Bruckner Symphony.

Or the Brahms 2 !

**ferneyhoughgeliebte** · 14-06-13, 21:58

Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post

Or the Brahms 2 !

EDIT: I have a feeling that RO was in the driving seat last time the Brahms #2 was featured - he (or whomever) thought the Abbado was the best of modern recordings (prompting me to buy it) in the great tradition of Furtwangler. Some glorious great - nay; "stellar" - recordings covered.

**HighlandDougie** · 15-06-13, 09:22

Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post

I have a feeling that RO was in the driving seat last time the Brahms #2 was featured - he (or whomever) thought the Abbado was the best of modern recordings (prompting me to buy it) in the great tradition of Furtwangler. Some glorious great - nay; "stellar" - recordings covered.

I think it was the Abbado/BPO Brahms 3rd (as I then bought it); as referred to somewhere in the Brahms 2nd post, I seem to remember that it was the Concertgebouw/Chailly which was chosen in that work (as I also bought that at the time). But my ever-worsening memory may be at fault .......

Back to Rigoletto: BaL at its best. RO deconstructing the opera and its recordings in a masterly fashion.

**BBMmk2** · 15-06-13, 13:27

Who won today? I switched to watch Trooping the Colour(see my thread).

BaL 15.06.13 - Verdi's Rigoletto

BaL 15.06.13 - Verdi's Rigoletto

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