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Disc 1:

1. N. 1 Preludio
2. N.2 Introduzione: 'Delta mia bella incognita borghese'
3. N.2 Introduzione: 'Questa o quella'
4. N.2 Introduzione: 'Ch'io gli parli'
5. N.3 Duetto: 'Quel vecchio maledivami!'
6. N.4 Scena e Duetto: 'Pari siamo!...io la lingua'
7. N.4 Scena e Duetto: 'Figlia!...'/'Mio padre!'
8. N.4 Scena e Duetto: Già de tre lune son qui venuta'
9. N.5 Scena e Duetto: 'Giovanna, ho dei rimorsi'
10. N.5 Scena e Duetto: 'È il sol dell'anima'
11. N.5 Scena e Duetto: 'Che m'ami, deh, ripetimi'
12. N.6 Aria: 'Gualtier Maldè...Caro nome che il mio cor'
13. N.7 Finale Primo: 'Riedo!...perché?'/'Silenzio...all'opra'
14. N.7 Finale Primo: 'Zitti, zitti, muoviamo a vendetta'

Disc 2:

1. N.8 Scena ed Aria: 'Ella mi fu rapita!'
2. N.8 Scena ed Aria: 'Parmi veder le lagrime'
3. N.8 Scena ed Aria: 'Duca, duca!'/ ' Ebben?'
4. N.8 Scena ed Aria: 'Possente amor mi chiama'
5. N.9 Scena ed Aria: 'Povero Rigoletto!'
6. N.9 Scena ed Aria: 'Cortigiani, vil razza dannata'
7. N.10 Scena e Duetto: 'Mio padre!'/ 'Dio! mia Gilda!'
8. N.10 Scena e Duetto: 'Tutte le feste al tempio'
9. N.10 Scena e Duetto: 'Ah! Solo per me l'infamia'
10. N.10 Scena e Duetto: 'Poiché fosti invano da me maledetto'
11. N.11 Scena e Canzone: 'E l'ami?'/ 'Sempre'
12. N.11 Scena e Canzone: 'La donna è mobile'
13. N.12 Quartetto: 'Un dì, se ben rammentomi'
14. N.12 Quartetto: 'Bella figlia dell'amore'
15. N.13 Scena, Terzetto e Tempesta: 'Maddalena?'/ 'Aspettate'
16. N.13 Scena, Terzetto e Tempesta: 'È amabile inverno cotal giovinotto'
17. N.14 Scena e Duetto Finale: 'Della vendetta alfin giunge l'istante!'
18. N.14 Scena e Duetto Finale: 'Chi è mai, chi è qui in sua vece?'
19. N.14 Scena e Duetto Finale: 'V'ho ingannato...colpevole fui'

Rating: - 10/9
This is a very good recording of this work. It's a lyrical opera of Verdi. Marvelous singing and orchestra that is at top. I love this much, and I shuld wish it had a little bit better sound. The sound is not bad at all. It's more than just good. Not perferct, but nearly. I can strongly recomend this.

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Rating: - Superb CD
Impeccable sound quality and very good performance. Especially Ileana Cotrubas is stunning as Gilda and the duets she sings with Rigoletto simply send shivers down your spine.

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Rating: - A Rigoletto of One's Dreams
Once in a very rare while one runs into an operatic recording from the studio where everything works well. That is the case with this version of Verdi's "Rigoletto". It is certainly one of Carlo Maria Giulini's very best performances and in glorious digital sound from DGG. From day one Giulini has been delivering some astonishing performances in all formats of the last 50 years. There is, for instance, a very poor sounding but brilliant "La Traviata" with Tebaldi from 1953 that frankly gives a new definition to the opera that no one has yet to equal.

This recording is from 1980. Placido Domingo is the Duke of Mantua, Pierro Cappuccilli the title character, Ileana Cortrubas a perfect Gilda, Nicolai Ghiarov is a big step up for Sparafucile and the Magdelena of Elena Obraztsova is beyond anyone's expectation. I guess the most inspired bit of casting comes in the guise of Kurt Moll as Monterone. Talk about a roaring curse put on the humpback! Add to this the glistening performance of the Wiener Staatsopernchor and the Vienna Philharmonic plus Giulini's innate sense of operatic drama and what a blend one gets! Giulini, fastidious as always, is able to take tempi that would normally be played more rapidly and slow them down to wring every drop of emotion from them. And none of this is done to grand stand. In fact by the time Gilda has been kidnapped I found myself hearing this opera sort of on a "first time" basis. I've certainly never encountered anything like it before.

I heard Domingo and Cortrubas sing their pairing at the Met in 1977. I still think this is Domingo's greatest role when everything is taken into consideration. Handsome, just the right size voice, and perfect sense of style and a thousand other plaudits describe the man at his operatic finest. Elena Cortrubas is similarly cast and I simply can't think of another Gilda that is both so child-like and yet can sing the many big moments in her part without shrieking or disappearing under the orchestra. This recording is as I remembered her in the house 30 years ago. Cappuccilli is in a league of his own as Rigoletto. I've only heard this baritone in person once, and he is the only singer I've ever seen in New York that got a truly well deserved encore for his big aria in Rossini's "William Tell". He has a rather four square sound that's perfect for Verdi. It is neither blustery nor overly refined, (something I hate in this part). He makes the case for a fool as a fool and lets out waves of sound without covering his high notes to their detriment. Ghiarov and Obraztsova are, well, simply beyond anything one can expect ever to hear on the stage. Siepi probably recorded Sparafucile more than any other great bass, and for my money that silky Italian voice owns the role. But Ghiarov is understated and majestic at the same time. Obraztsova's heavily tinged Italian does no harm here as she is able to bring the right balance to her ensemble work. Moll is out of this world as he yells "sii maledetto" to the shocked Rigoletto. Along with Giulini you simply can't find a better ensemble that is so utterly successful at their task. Don't miss it!

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Rating: - A star-studded achievement: one of Giulini's best
Piero Cappuccilli is a baritone whose smooth, rich, bel canto voice can be noted for its intense humanity and personality, and while this facet did wonders in such roles as Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa, Simon Boccanegra, Macbeth, and Amonasro, it has a particular appeal in a role like Rigoletto. Rigoletto is normally approached as a horrid, contemptible blackguard whose sole redeeming quality is his, eventually, lethal love for his daughter. Cappuccilli reforms this approach and gifts the demented Rigoletto with a singularly human performance; this has an expectedly profound effect. His Act I lament ("Pari siamo! ... io la lingua, egli ha il pugnale") and his Act II outburst ("Cortigiani, vil razza dannata," in which Cappuccilli presents Rigoletto in an indescribable fury which melts into lambasted and befuddled defeat) are two examples of this amazing achievement.

Romanian soprano Ileana Cotrubas boasted a clear, crystalline, virginal coloratura voice that one hears far too infrequently; her performance as Violetta Valéry (in the historic Carlos Kleiber 1977 recording of La Traviata) is regarded as one of the finest ever sung. Her performance of "Gualtier Maldè ... Caro nome che il mio cor" (probably Verdi's greatest aria for the soprano voice, excluding "O patria mia" and "Sempre libera") is comparable only to that of Dame Joan Sutherland. She blends with Cappuccilli very favorably in their Act I duets ("Figlia!" ... "Mio padre!" and "Ah, veglia, o donna questo fiore"); in the Act II vengeance scene ("Sì, vendetta, tremenda vendetta," in which she, the human angel, begs the bloodthirsty Rigoletto to forgive the Duke); and in the Act III death scene ("V'ho ingannato...colpevole fui," in which her Gilda serenely dies and Rigoletto is left childless, alone, and stricken into insanity). She is also a favorable match for Domingo's Duca (he was Alfredo Germont in the aforementioned Kleiber recording) in their bubbly, hormonal Act I duet ("Addio...speranza ed anima").

The role of il Duca di Mantova was a comfort role for nearly all of the distinguished tenors. From the Great Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza, and Benjamino Gigli, to Carlo Bergonzi (Kleiber), Mario del Monaco (Erede), Jussi Björling (Perlea), Nicolai Gedda (Pradelli), and Alfredo Kraus (Rudel), to Giuseppe di Stefano (Serafin), Luciano Pavarotti (Bonynge and Chailly), José Carreras (Rudel), and Neil Shicoff (Sinopoli), nearly all the inimitable voices of the tenor register have molded their own versions of "La donna è mobile." However, few if any have ever captured the pure sex appeal and sensual intensity of the unscrupulous nobleman as ably as Plácido Domingo. His "Questo o quella" is a lyrical, jaunty Verdian hymn for philanderers; he is irresistible in his wooing ("È il sol dell'anima, la vita è amore") to the extent to which one can fully understand how Gilda was so ravenously enamored with him. His Act II yearning ("Ella mi fu rapita ... Parmi veder le lagrime") is weakened somewhat by a disappointing "Possente amor mio chiama" (Domingo is giddy enough, but his failure to hit the high note at the end forces the aria to fizzle out to a dead end).

The "supporting" singers are a collective landmark in choice casting. Nicolai Ghiaurov is a sly, silver-tongued gangster as the Burgundian Sparafucile; his introduction ("Sparafucil mi nomino") draws out like a dragon's growl. Elena Obraztsova possesses a vinegary, slightly mordacious voice; this makes her a somewhat doubtful choice for the role of the buxom gypsy Maddalena, but she is charming and epicurean throughout, especially in her Act III duet with Domingo ("Un dì, se ben rammentomi"). Kurt Moll is a rampaging gryphon as the brutally wronged father, il Conte di Monterone. The expertise of his Act I curse ("Novello insulto!") should come as no surprise from a bass who has erected his career upon performances as Sarastro, Baron Ochs, König Marke, and Gurnemanz. Hanna Schwarz is an indulgence as the maid, Giovanna, and Olive Fredricks is a honey-voiced Countess Ceprano.

Rigoletto is, by no means, a showcase for an orchestra; Verdi injected much more of his energy into the vocal half of this opera. However, Carlo Maria Giulini and the Wiener Philharmoniker deliver a performance of considerable depth. The Prelude possesses an air of immense melancholy injected with bursts of fury like lighting in a swirling, foggy thundercloud; the motif of Monterone's curse runs throughout, and Giulini is careful to sustain, nearly always, a doomful atmosphere, even in the midst of the most melodically stratospheric moments. The "Caro nome" aria is a rare exception; Cotrubas is an angel as the entranced, enraptured Gilda, floating on the raft of the wistful woodwinds of the orchestra and the ecstatic intonations of a solo violin. The Wiener Staatsopernchor is also in excellent voice. "Zitti, zitti, moviamo a vendetta," a dainty, ironic, little chorus, is carried out with the brio and bustle of a kidnapping; "Duca! Duca! ... Scorrendo uniti remota via" is charming as the courtiers describe how they brilliantly tricked Rigoletto into helping them steal his own daughter.

The grandeur and excellence of this recording can be observed easily in one the opera's most famous moments: the Act III quartet, "Bella figlia dell'amore," featuring Domingo, Obraztsova, Cotrubas, and Cappuccilli. It is one of the greatest ensembles ever composed for an opera and this is one of the most successful recorded renditions, with Domingo as a man of wax in a state of intoxicated gaiety; Obraztsova as the garrulous, giggling seductress; Cotrubas as the deceived, heart-broken Gilda; and Cappuccilli as the quietly livid Rigoletto.

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Rating: - A lovely performance, but rather sober and lacking a charismatic Rigoletto
This Rigoletto from Vienna was a prestige recording for DG, featuring the undeniably great Giulini. In his early years at La Scala, Giulini was a riveting opera conductor, but in his later phase he became more serious and is distinctly a sober sides here. There's no birancy or lift to the music, and the avoidance of all vulgarity drains the melodrama of its fun. If there was ever a Rigoletto performed in church, this is it.

Even so, the playing and singing are lovely. Cotrubas and Domingo aren't allowed to really cut loose, but they have charisma. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the lead, Piero Cuppuccilli, who was the standard go-to baritone at this time. Smooth-voied and reliable, Cappuccilli doesn't pass muster in the one department that counts in a great Rigoletto, the ability to stir us emotionally. Better to stick with Tito Gobbi in his classic mono set with Callas (EMI) or even Sherrill Milnes with Sutherland and Pavarotti, who isn't remotely Italian but has a great huge voice.