Giuseppe
VERDI
Rigoletto
Renata Scotto (Gilda), Ettore
Bastianini (Rigoletto), Alfredo Kraus (the Duke), Fiorenza Cossotto
(Maddalena)
Florence May Festival Chorus and Orchestra/Gianandrea
Gavazzeni
BMG CLASSICS/RICORDI 74321
68779 2 [2 CDs, 56.27,
64.12]
Crotchet AmazonUK
AmazonUS
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recommendations
Nothing is told us about the provenance of this recording and though the
booklet (sic!) has a double-page spread the inside is actually blank. However,
since the other disc I have recently reviewed in this series (Lanner Waltzes
under Stolz) was very decently documented it does cross my mind that this
may be a mock-up to accompany the review disc and that sale copies may contain
something more. Still, if you insist on decent notes and even a libretto
or at least a synopsis, get your dealer to open it up and see what it really
does contain.
"Pub. 1969" it says on the discs, but Bastianini sang for the last time in
1965 and a reference book gives me 1960. Unfortunately, the recording sounds
older than that. It is studio-made, not live, and the solo voices are firm
and clear, but the orchestra and chorus, especially in forte passages,
are so woolly that I kept thinking my ears needed a good syringe. However,
I became so caught up in the music that this virtually ceased to worry me
after a while.
I hope this does not sound too discouraging for connoisseurs will have to
have this recording and more general buyers who don't insist on digital should
also consider it very seriously, for they are unlikely to ever hear the opera
better done. Renata Scotto's voice became heavy in later years as she pushed
herself into the verismo repertoire. Here it is wonderfully pure and
steady, and she expresses all Gilda's emotions with a wide range of tone
and close attention to the words. Alfredo Kraus was also in his prime, the
sort of youthful, ringing tenor everyone likes to hear. He makes the most
of his Act 2 aria, his one chance to hint that he may not be 100% cad, and
concludes the following ensemble with a splendid high E flat. Bastianini
had a long experience of the role behind him. He gives a real bite to the
words in the hunchback's more venomous ravings yet finds space for a honeyed
tone when the character's more human side comes to the fore. The scenes with
his daughter are extremely moving. Fiorenza Cossotto as Maddalena is a luxury
but the advantage of a totally Italian production is that even the smallest
comprimari roles make their mark since they are so idiomatically handled.
All this would have come to nought had the conductor been unable to bind
it together. Gavazzeni tended to be regarded in England as a routinier
(in truth, he could have his listless off-days), as a minor survival from
the age of traditional Italian operatic conductors such as Serafin. He was
actually a man of wide cultural interests which went far beyond operatic
music in general and Italian music in particular (of which he was, however,
an indefatigable revivalist: Il piccolo Marat, Zazà, La Principessa
della Rosa, you name it. If such operas have been done at all in recent
memory, Gavazzeni was usually there to conduct them). One of his last public
appearances, in his mid-eighties, was a memorable performance of Reger's
Böcklin Pictures. Here he shows the hand of the true operatic conductor
in the way his tempi all seem so inevitable one scarcely notices them. All
the big moments are launched with the proper slancio and, whether
scamperingly light, powerfully trenchant or poignantly sweet his orchestra
is always making the right sound.
Some very great names have recorded the major roles of Rigoletto but I venture
to suggest that you won't find a more integrated version than this. More
than Scotto's or Kraus's of Bastianini's or Gavazzeni's Rigoletto, it is
Verdi's Rigoletto. It's just a pity it wasn't better recorded.
Christopher Howell
http://www.click2classics.co.uk
