Rigoletto

Parma: Stefano Vizioli 2008 Production based on Pierluigi Samaritani's 1987 Classic Production
This is a gorgeous, traditional production (Parma, 2008). You can watch it on youtube instead of reading this long-winded review. I usually have a hard time really getting into the drama of a work as familiar as Rigoletto. Another problem is that the memory of so many great singers haunts every line. So you watch and listen, taking in the gorgeous tunes with mild weariness and dutifully noting every deficiency or failing of the performers, until it can become an exercise in self-fulfilling disappointment. The exact moment I snapped out of this attitude and into the heart of the tragedy was when Nucci cries out in act II "Io vo' mia figlia!" ("I want my daughter!"). This confrontation with the courtiers is particularly poignant in this production. The courtiers at this point realize that it is Rigoletto's daughter, not his lover that that Duke is defiling in the adjacent room. "Cortigiani, vil razza dannata," follows, where Rigoletto first curses and threatens the courtiers and then is...

If you only want ONE Rigoletto DVD, get this one.
I am a great fan of this Verdi masterpiece. Leo Nucci is about the best singer in the title role - there are numerous great Rigolettos, but Nucci not only sings the part, but also looks and acts the part to perfection. He has not less than three commercially available DVDs in this role over the years.
However, in THIS particular production, good old Nucci is finally blest with the most EVEN vocal cast, and the most superb period production.
We must count ourselves lucky having this video from Parma's 2008 production, of which I saw live that spring in my city, though unwittingly, I missed Francesco Demuro and went to Valter Borin's shows instead (hitting myself now).
Nino Machaidze was only about 25 or 26 in 2008 (may be even younger), and she is the perfect Gilda, even more convincing than Diana Damrau in the 2005 Dresden DVD with JDF.
I never considered Sutherland an ideal Gilda, not just visually but also vocally. Outstanding though she was in this sort of...

Stunning! Superb!! Perfect!!!
Rigoletto was my very first opera recording, way back in late high school; it was a mono recording with Bjoerling, Peters, and Merrill. It captivated me then (I wore out the records) and it still does. Berger ("Verdi With A Vengeance") refers to it as a "miracle ... a dramatic masterpiece whose musical ideas unfold swiftly, seamlessly and furiously". The score is rich, with an overabundance of melodies which, when well performed, have brought audiences to their feet in theatres all over the world since its premier in 1851.

This performance is a tour de force from curtain up to the final curtain down; it is literally a nonstop roller coaster ride with brilliant performances from every singer, the chorus and the orchestra combined with a technically flawless DVD.

Recorded in the fall of 2008, just months after her huge success as Juliet in Salzburg, Nino Machaidze provides a Gilda that is stunning in execution. Much has been made of claimed lack of coluratura...

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