Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Rigoletto (1851) [1:59:23]
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino/Gianandrea Gavazzeni
Rigoletto - Ettore Bastianini (baritone); Gilda - Renata Scotto (soprano); Duca di Mantova - Alfredo Kraus (tenor); Sparafucile - Ivo Vinco (bass); Maddalena - Fiorenza Cossotto (mezzo-soprano); Giovanna - Clara Foti (mezzo-soprano); Monterone - Silvio Maionica (bass); Marullo - Virgilio Carbonari (baritone); Borsa - Enzo Guagni (tenor); Conte di Ceprano - Giuseppe Morresi (baritone); Contessa di Ceprano - Clara Foti (mezzo-soprano)
rec. July 1960, Teatro della Pergola, Florence, Italy. Ambient Stereo
PRISTINE AUDIO PACO184 [55:35 + 63:48]
This recording was originally made by the Mercury Living Presence team using its usual set-up of only three microphones and as such its issue on LP was first-rate; unfortunately, for its first appearance on CD on the BMG/RCA label, the remastering was completely botched by the engineers and it was so muddy and distant that I gave up on it as unlistenable. Christopher Howell’s review twenty years ago of that issue adumbrated the many virtues of its superb cast while lamenting the woolly recording quality of the then new Urania remastering, which apparently was also inadequate. Although re-issues of that provenance are usually wholly recommendable, Gramophone recently confirmed that failure by describing it as “murky” and Andrew Rose’s notes in this new Pristine remastering damn it as “frankly dismal and vastly over-processed.” This XR remastering in Ambient Stereo from German LP pressings should therefore have been most welcome; however, it seems that neither Gramophone nor Pristine is acquainted with another option that I have found to be the most satisfactory: the reissue a decade ago on the no-frills Andromeda label in excellent 24-bit sound, which has some slight edge or distortion in the loudest passages but generally sounds really good for 1960. That is the incarnation in which I listen to it and although I am usually the first to endorse Pristine’s work, it would be dishonest of me not to observe that I still marginally prefer the sound on the Andromeda version. It has been largely de-hissed without losing presence, whereas there is still quite a lot of LP surface noise in Pristine’s and while Pristine’s upper frequencies are more brilliant, they can also be harsh, and neither transfer has been able to remove some “fuzz” and congestion in loud ensembles. There isn’t much in it: Andromeda is warmer and easier on the ear, Pristine clearer and sharper; both are excellent and enormous improvements over the first CD version.
In my
2019 survey of
Rigoletto recordings, I made the following assessment which I do not need to revise:
“This recording has a stellar cast with quality in depth down to the chilling Sparafucile of black-voiced bass Ivo Vinco and the rich, vibrant Maddalena of his then wife Fiorenza Cossotto. Not everyone responds to the reedy sound of Alfredo Kraus's Duke but at thirty-two he was in sappiest, most youthful voice and plays the suave rake to perfection, despite some lack of ping in his top notes. Nevertheless, he hits a top D at the conclusion of the oft-omitted cabaletta "Possente amor" and is matched in winning youthfulness by a twenty-seven-year-old Renata Scotto, before her voice took on a shrill edge and a beat. She is just occasionally a little squally but often touchingly delicate and girlish, floating some lovely top C's, D flats and even a top D of her own; there are money notes a-plenty from both artists. But of course, the raison d'être here is the magnificent Rigoletto of Ettore Bastianini. Never an especially subtle artist he does not rival Gobbi for verbal nuance but instead produces a glorious stream of noble tone, throwing in top A's and providing a biting intensity which is wholly apt to portray the Jester's desperation.
I don't know of any performance from Gavazzeni, either live or studio, which is less than excellent; he strikes me as one of the most under-rated opera conductors of the 20C and he does everything right here as ever. Singers must have loved him as he never rushes them but always maintains tension and momentum. This is a thrilling, wholly satisfying recording. It might not displace Serafin or Bonynge but deserves to sit alongside them.”
Reacquaintance with the three principal singers has reaffirmed my reasons for both admiring and having reservations about them: Bastianini is in glorious, ringing voice but almost unremittingly loud and quite without Gobbi’s subtlety, Scotto is pure and fluting but rather dull compared with the (surprisingly) girlish and infinitely nuanced Callas, Kraus is elegant but reedy and wan compared with rakish Pavarotti and even the stretched Di Stefano; I still turn first to Serafin and Bonynge, even if they, too, have weaknesses; perhaps the version most comparable to this under review in terms of affect and voice-types is the Solti recording with Merrill, Moffo and Kraus again as the caddish Duke.
Ralph Moore
