In 1850, when the libretto
of Stiffelio was being finalised
with his librettist Piave, Verdi was
also gripped, perhaps in a way he had
not experienced since the composition
of Macbeth three years before,
by the thought of setting an opera based
on Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse.
He itched to start its composition and
may have made significant sketches during
his work on Stiffelio. He considered
Victor Hugo’s play ‘perhaps the greatest
drama of modern times’ and the jester
Tribolet, later to become Rigoletto
in his opera, ‘a creation ‘worthy
of Shakespeare’. In Verdi’s mind
there could be no greater compliment.
Verdi, already having
had many brushes with censors of both
church and state worried about their
response to aspects of the plot. With
the opera to be premiered in Venice
he relied on the assurances of Piave,
a native of the city, that the Austrian
censors would not object to the subject.
On arrival in Venice Verdi found that
the censors did not merely object to
the subject’s immorality, but also to
such detail as a King being involved,
that Rigoletto was a hunchback and that
the body of his stabbed daughter was
on the stage, in a sack, in the finale.
Verdi, in high dudgeon, packed his bags
and returned to Busseto. After much
diplomacy by both the Secretary of La
Fenice and Piave, the General Director
of Public Order made a number of concessions.
Verdi in his turn offered to compromise
on a Duke instead of a King, but otherwise
maintaining the original characters
of Victor Hugo’s drama and particularly
a setting where the threat of a curse
was meaningful. He also maintained the
principle of Rigoletto’s deformity and
the presence of the stabbed Gilda in
the final scene. The censor accepted
the points and Rigoletto opened
at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice on 11
March 1851 with Felice Varesi, creator
of Macbeth, in the title role.
Despite having to live
with a physical deformity that sets
him apart, and which in this plot doubtless
would have contributed to his sense
of grievance and bitter tongue, the
jester Rigoletto is one of the most
profoundly human of Verdi’s creations.
His character is defined in the music,
particularly in the three great duets
with his daughter Gilda. The first,
in act one, is of fatherly love and
concern, the second of fury as he discovers
her defilement by the Duke and the third
of despair as he opens the sack and
she tells him of her sacrificing of
her life to save the man who raped her
yet whom she loves. The vocal and histrionic
demands of the title role have drawn
every great high baritone since its
creation. A privileged few have set
down their interpretations on record
for posterity. To convey the cloistered
and virginal Gilda, Verdi wrote the
role for a light flexible soprano, a
voice type that is rare in his works.
To the rapacious Duke he not only gave
the memorable aria La donna è
mobile, destined to become the most
famous tenor aria of all time, Nessun
Dorma notwithstanding, but also
the opening phrases of the most famous
quartet in opera that follows - both
in the final act. The Duke is one of
the most gracefully lyrical of all Verdi’s
tenor roles, which might be seen in
some way as compensating for the vileness
of his character.
With the advent of
the LP, each of the major recording
companies issued a mono recording with
their contracted artists. As far as
the UK’s Columbia label was concerned
they had the redoubtable Maria Callas
under contract and were building their
recorded repertoire round her. Although
she had only ever sung the role of Gilda
on stage twice, in 1952, and had sung
roles of an entirely different fach
such as Aida and La Gioconda among
others, she was cast as the virginal
Gilda. Tito Gobbi, one of two outstanding
Italian Verdi baritones of the day was
cast as Rigoletto with the admired Giuseppe
Di Stefano as the rapacious Duke. With
that cast the issue was a sure fire
success. But in some households, including
mine, there was more focus on the portrayal
of Rigoletto himself and the Duke as
much as on the casting of Gilda. In
our view there was a worthy rival in
the form of a recording from Italian
Cetra.
This featured the impressive Giuseppe
Taddei as Rigoletto and Ferruccio Tagliavini
as the Duke. Tagliavini’s presence tipped
our choice Cetra’s way, he being in
our view far preferable to the less
vocally elegant Di Stefano.
Faced with two concurrently
issued recordings from the same source
I chose to start with that from Naxos,
being particularly impressed in the
past by what Mark Obert-Thorn achieves
in his remasterings from LP sources.
These are the only sources allowed under
the current 50-year copyright law in
the UK and Europe. The Naxos sound came
over as well-balanced and warm although
perhaps a little more recessed than
others from this source. In view of
my opinions of fifty years ago I was
particularly listening out for Di Stefano’s
opening aria Questa o quella
(CD 1 tr. 3). My first impression was
that his tone had more dryness and baritonal
hue than I had remembered. I promptly
changed discs to the Regis issue and
played the same aria (also CD 1 tr.
3). The sound was distinctly brighter,
even edgy, but was I really hearing
another tenor? Of course not, but I
embarked on two weeks of listening conundrums.
These culminated in my gathering a listening
panel. This comprised another reviewer,
a professional lyric coloratura soprano,
myself and my wife who, like me, attends
many performances as well as vocal competitions
and also acts as constant co-critic
if I want confirmation as to what we
are hearing. But while waiting to set
this listening session up, I had investigated
further to reveal a fundamental difference
in the two issues; six minutes in total
length of the work. This is significant
in an opera lasting less than 120 minutes.
At the listening session, using two
comparable players through my high quality
amplifier into my reference speakers,
and with a 10 second gap between we
switched from source to source. Just
in case of difference between the CD
players we switched over. The conclusions
were interesting. The brighter, edgy,
Regis sound came over as giving more
punch to the performance but was not
as easy on the ear. There was also a
difference in vocal pitching between
the Regis and Naxos of more than a quarter
tone, easily accountable by the faster
speed. Which is correct? I was only
able to compare with selected arias
by Gobbi on The Very Best of Tito
Gobbi (EMI Classics 5 85096 2) where
the timings were very similar to those
on the Naxos.
As to the performance,
it is that of Tito Gobbi as Rigoletto
that defines it as one of recorded operas
must haves. The role of Rigoletto
is one of the most profoundly human
of Verdi’s creations. His character
is defined in the music of the great
duets with his daughter Gilda in each
of the three acts. Whilst the vocal
and histrionic demands of the role have
drawn every great high baritone since
its creation that of Tito Gobbi is among
the very best of those set down on record.
He does not have the more juicy tone
of Taddei on the Cetra issue, but his
vocal nuance, variation of tonal colour
and respect for clarity of diction makes
his portrayal one of the recorded repertoire’s
most outstanding portrayals.
As I have noted, to
convey the cloistered and virginal Gilda,
Verdi wrote the role for a light flexible
soprano, a voice type that is rare in
his works. Callas fails to represent
the virginal naivety of Gilda. Her Caro
nome is lacking in spontaneity giving
an impression of artifice. There is
dramatic compensation in her duets with
Gobbi, particularly tutte le feste
in act two. Of course, typically, she
does manage to overcome some vocal limitations
to give a meaningful portrayal even
if some moments of vocal strain intrude.
I continue to be less than impressed
by Giuseppe Di Stefano’s Duke. His Ella
mi fu rapita …Parmi veder le lagrime
at the start of act two (CD 2 tr.1 on
Naxos and trs. 1–2 on Regis) lacks elegance
whilst his La donna è mobile
calls for more vocal élan (CD
2 tr. 8 on Naxos and tr. 15 on Regis).
Serafin’s conducting is well paced if
lacking some of the dramatic thrust
found with other conductors in later
recordings. None of the supporting singers
is less than adequate with Plinio Clabassi’s
Monterone being better than many whilst
Nicola Zaccaria’s well sung Sparafucile
lacks the ultimate low note for his
departure from the alleyway near Rigoletto’s
home.
Over the last few years
I have come to have great respect and
admiration for the quality and integrity
of Mark Obert-Thorn's remasterings from
LP originals. To a degree those qualities
influence my personal preference for
the Naxos version of the two under review.
Not all my listening panel share that
view, with one preferring the impact
of the Regis despite its edginess. But
my mind also goes back to my family's
choice of the Cetra LPs with Taddei
as Rigoletto over the original Columbia
with Gobbi fifty years ago. That choice
was much influenced by preference for
the vocal elegance of Tagliavini compared
to Di Stefano who benefits from Regis's
faster speeds and higher pitch in the
comparison. Also, with those tracks
I have been able to compare with EMI
originals, the Naxos timings are more
accurate.
Robert J Farr
Comments received
Thanks for giving me a chance to comment
on Mr. Farr's review. My transfer was
pitched at A = 440 Hz. Apparently, so
was EMI's (at least in their first CD
edition of 1986, which I have in a German
pressing). The timings between these
two editions as shown on my CD player's
display and the timings given in the
review of the Regis set are as follows:
EMI Naxos Regis
CD 1 56:10 56:18 53:29
CD 2 61:53 61:54 58:39 (= 71:45 - 6:59
- 6:07)
Some of the differences between the
EMI and the Naxos are due to varying
lengths in the pauses between acts and
at the ends of the CDs. You might want
to ask Regis why they chose to pitch
their edition so much sharper than either
of these.
Mark Obert-Thorn
Regis Producer's
comment:
The test CD I used to pitch the turntable
was the EMI CD transfer of 'Tabarro'
which matches exactly the pitch of my
transfer and as it matched I used the
same setting for the other (recent Regis)
releases. It may be that the EMI CD
was slightly sharp.
It is surprising how much variation
there is in various transfers and I
know that some EMI Callas re-issues
(from master tapes) have been criticised
for being slightly flat. It may even
be the orchestra's tuning can be slightly
sharp on a given occasion.
On some very early LPs, before cutting
techniques were refined, the pitch on
some LP sides could vary by as much
as a semitone from start to finish.
It may be worth pointing out that the
reviewer says that his memories of playing
his old LPs of the set indicated that
he thought our set was very much as
he remembered it sounding, whereas the
Naxos made Di Stefano's voice sound
rather baritonal.
Tony Watts
Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala,
Milan/Tulio Serafin 
