Verdi: Rigoletto (Highlights)
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Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) Rigoletto (Highlights) Melodrama in 3 Acts Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave Duke of Mantua - Yordy Ramiro, tenor Rigoletto, a...
Giuseppe Verdi
(1813-1901)
Rigoletto (Highlights)
Melodrama in 3 Acts
Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave
Duke of Mantua - Yordy Ramiro, tenor
Rigoletto, a court jester - Eduard Tumagian, baritone
Gilda, his daughter - Alida Ferrarini, soprano
Sparafucile, a hired assessin - Jozef pacek, baritone
Maddalena, his sister - Jitka Saparova, contralto
Giovanna, Gilda's nurse - Alzbeta Michalkova, contralto
Marullo - Peter Subert, tenor
Borsa Matteo - Jozef Abel, tenor
Court Ceprano - Robert Szucs, tenor
Courtiers - Ladies - Pages - Halberdiers
The scene is set in the city of Mantua and its environs. The period is the 16th Century.
Slovak Philharmonic Chorus
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Alexander Rahbari, conductor
Giuseppe Verdi's career spans three quarters of
the nineteenth century. He was born in 1813 at Le Roncole, near Busseto, the
son of a tavern-keeper, and distinguished himself locally in music. The encouragement
and patronage of his future father-in-law, Antonio Barezzi, a merchant in
Busseto, allowed him further study in Milan, before returning to Busseto as maestro
di musica. His first venture into opera, a reasonably successful
one, was in 1839 with Oberto. This was followed, however, by the failure
of Un giomo di regno, written at a period when the composer suffered the
death of his wife and two children. His early reputation was established by the
opera Nabucco, staged at La Scala in Milan in 1842.
Verdi's subsequent career in Italy was to bring him unrivalled fame, augmented by his reputation as a patriot and
fervent supporter of Italian national unity. His name itself was treated as an
acronym for the proposed monarch of a united Italy, 'Vittorio Emanuele Rč
d'Italia', and much of his work in the period of unification was
susceptible to patriotic interpretation. His long association with the singer
Giuseppina Strepponi led to their marriage in 1859, the year of Un ballo in
maschera. He completed his last opera, Falstaff, in 1893, four years
before her death, but felt himself unequal to further Shakespearian operas that
were then proposed. He died while staying in Milan, early in 1901, his death
the subject of national mourning throughout Italy.
The opera Rigoletto was first staged at
La Fenice in Venice on 11 March, 1851. A year earlier Verdi had expressed his
delight with Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse, finding in Triboulet,
the central character, a creation worthy of Shakespeare. He urged his librettist
Francesco Maria Piave, poet and stage manager of La Fenice, to secure the
approval of the censors as soon as possible. Piave did as Verdi suggested, but
whatever verbal approval he had from the censors was denied when it came to the
point. The operatic version of Le roi s'amuse under the title La
maledizione (The Curse) was stimatized as immoral and obscene. The
obscenity lay chiefly in the fact that the plot deals with the unscrupulous
activities of a profligate king.
Piave's first suggested changes did not please
Verdi. The King, Francis I, was to be a mere nobleman, the Duke of Ventignano,
and there was to be no plot to kill him, while the murdered Gilda's body was
not to be concealed in a sack: Triboletto, the original of Rigoletto, the court
jester, was not to be an ugly hunchback. Negotiation with the censors followed,
and something of Victor Hugo was restored. The villain was to be Vincenzo
Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, referred to only as the Duke of Mantua, the deformity
of the jester was permitted and there was no longer any objection to the sack.
Censorship had caused delay and frustration, but by the end of December 1850
the matter was near enough to a settlement to allow Verdi to proceed with the
composition in time for the carnival season.
Verdi had not only been angered by the censors
and consequently impatient with Piave. He had also had serious reservations
about the proposed prima donna, Signora Sanchioli, known, Verdi
suggested, for her Michelangelesque poses. The final cast had Teresa Brambilia
as the first Gilda, a 38-year-old singer, one of seven sisters well known on
the operatic stage. The French-Italian baritone Felice Varesi, who had created
the Verdian rôle of Macbeth, was the first Rigoletto, and the part of the Duke
was taken by the tenor Raffaele Mirati. Varesi's daughter later recalled her
father's doubts about the possible reaction of the audience to his appearance
as a hunchbacked buffoon and how Verdi pushed him onto the stage at the first
performance, causing him to stumble, but at the same time impressing the
audience, enraptured by such a dramatically appropriate entrance.
Rigoletto
, as the opera was now known, was an immediate
success with the public, and was received equally well in Paris, where even
Victor Hugo approved, and in 1853 in London. In Rome the censors had their
revenge, and Rigoletto now became Viscardello, a title and opera
that Verdi disowned.
The opera, set at the ducal court in 16th
century Mantua, opens, after the Overture [Track 1], with a scene in which the
Duke has his heart set on the seduction of the wife of Count Ceprano. In a Ballata
[2] he explains how all beauties are the same to him and he has no intention
of tying himself to a single one. Rigoletto, the hunch-backed court jester,
abets the Duke in his seduction of the Countess, mocking the cuckolded husband,
who swears revenge on Rigoletto. Count Monterone, whose daughter has been
wronged by the Duke, responds to Rigoletto's mockery by pronouncing a curse on
him and his master. In the second scene, set in a blind alley outside
Rigoletto's house, the jester meets Sparafucile, a hired assassin, who offers
him his services, should he ever need them. Rigoletto, alone, draws a
comparison between himself and the murderer, he killing with his tongue and the
other with his sword: he recalls Monterone's curse and expresses his contempt
for the courtiers of the Duke [3]. Entering the courtyard of his house, he is
greeted by his daughter Gilda, recently released from her convent school, her
presence hidden from the court [4]. She asks about her mother, but he refuses
to answer, although he remembers her with fondness: all his love is now for
Gilda, his whole universe. Rigoletto summons Gilda's nurse Giovanna, and asks
if there have been any visitors, bidding her watch Gilda closely. The Duke,
however, disguised as a student, bribes Giovanna to ensure her silence and is
surprised to see Rigoletto there, not knowing his relationship with Gilda, whom
he has followed on the way to church. Once Rigoletto has gone, the Duke
declares his love [5], giving her an assumed name and not revealing his true
identity. Once he has gone, she muses on his dear name [6]. The courtiers,
meanwhile, gathered in the street outside, think that Gilda must be Rigoletto's
mistress and plan her abduction, a procedure in which Rigoletto himself is
induced to help, thinking that they are abducting Count Ceprano's wife. Masked,
he holds the ladder for them to climb his own garden wall. They carry out their
scheme [7], ready to mock Rigoletto the next day.
Act II takes place in the Duke's palace once
more. The Duke is agitated [8], since Gilda has been taken from him: when he
returned to her house, he had found her gone, and he imagines her tears and the
danger she is in. His mood changes when his courtiers reveal what they have
done and the identity of their victim. When Rigoletto comes in, affecting
unconcern, the courtiers mock him [9]. Still pretending indifference, he tries
to find out where Gilda is. The Duchess requests her husband's presence, but
the courtiers make excuses. Now Rigoletto realises that Gilda is with the Duke
in an inner room and the others now understand that they have abducted
Rigoletto's daughter. Now he curses them all, damned race of courtiers [10],
and in desperation tries to open the doors of the inner chamber, to be held
back by the courtiers, while he begs them all to have pity on him. Gilda comes
out, throws herself into her father's arms, and tells him what has happened,
how the Duke first deceived her [11]. Rigoletto accepts the dishonour as his
alone and tries to comfort his daughter. Monterone enters, frustrated that his
curse has not harmed the Duke, but Rigoletto now promises him the revenge he
has sought.
Act III is set outside the city by the banks of
the River Mincio. There is a rough building, a hostelry below and rough stairs
leading to a grain-store above. Gilda and her father are in the street outside,
while the Duke, disguised now as an ordinary officer, drinks within, singing of
the fickle nature of women [12]. The assassin Sparafucile returns with wine and
knocks on the ceiling, a signal to his sister Maddalena to come down to
entertain their guest. Sparafucile leaves them together and goes out to
Rigoletto, who assures him that this is the one he must kill. Inside the Duke
now declares his love for Maddalena, to the distress of Gilda, who, with her
father, overhears this evidence of perfidy. The Duke is vehement in his
protestations, but Maddalena makes light of them [13]. Rigoletto, meanwhile, is
set only on revenge. While Sparafucile prepares to murder the Duke, Maddalena
regrets the death of such a handsome young man for the mere twenty scudi paid
by the jester. Eventually he agrees that if another visitor appears before
midnight, when Rigoletto will return, they may kill him instead. Ironically it
is Gilda who returns, now dressed as a man, anxious to save the Duke, and it is
her that Sparafucile kills. When Rigoletto returns to claim his victim, he is
given a body in a sack. He gloats over his supposed victim, but then the voice
of the Duke is heard above, singing his song on the faithlessness of women. To
his horror, he discovers the victim of his own revenge to be his daughter, now
very near to death [14]. He kneels by her side, calling on her to answer him
and then knocks on the door of the tavern, but no one answers. As she dies,
Gilda confesses her love, while Rigoletto blames himself for causing her death:
now, though, she will be in Heaven with her mother and will pray for her
father. Gilda's death brings again a bitter realisation of the working of
Monterone's curse, as he falls distraught by the body of his daughter.
Keith Anderson
Rigoletto (more info)
Performed by:
Polish National Opera Orchestra
Victor Orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Stockholm Symphony Orchestra
New Symphony Orchestra
RCA Victor Orchestra
RTBF Symphony Orchestra
Russian Philharmonia Orchestra
New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Estonian State Symphony Orchestra
Frankfurt Brandenburg State Orchestra
Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
Rome Opera Orchestra
Nils Grevillius Orchestra
CSR Symphony Orchestra, Bratislava
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Berlin State Opera Orchestra
Milan La Scala Orchestra
Studio orchestra
English National Opera Orchestra
Europa Symphony
Russian Philharmonia
Metropolitan Orchestra
Mannheim National Theatre Orchestra
Vitaphone Orchestra
Composed by:
Lawrence Tibbett
Cesare Sodero
Enrico Caruso
Giuseppe Verdi
Conducted by:
Jacek Kaspszyk
Josef A. Pasternack
Eri Klas
Will Humburg
Mark Elder
Giulio Setti
Walter Goehr
Walter B. Rogers
Rosario Bourdon
Renato Cellini
Mario Bernardi
Selmar Meyrowitz
Franco Ghione
Nils Grevillius
Michael Halasz
Ondrej Lenard
Ettore Panizza
Gennaro Papi
Alexander Rahbari
Tullio Serafin
Ronald Zollman
Uri Mayer
Charles Rosekrans
Jonel Perlea
Heribert Beissel
Leo Blech
Ivan Anguelov
Wolfgang Grohs
Frederic Chaslin
Herman Heller
Norman Cordon, bass
John McCormack, tenor
Alida Ferrarini, soprano
Louise Homer, contralto
Nellie Melba, soprano
Giuseppe Valdengo, baritone
Beata Ulas, soprano
Agnieszka Wolna, alto
Raphaelle Paquette, soprano
Gregory Dahl, baritone
Antoine Belanger, tenor
Alexandre Sylvestre, baritone
Joseph Schwarz, tenor
Claire Dux, soprano
John Rawnsley, baritone
Renato Ercolani, tenor
Plinio Clabassi, bass
Anna Maria Rota, mezzo-soprano
Roberta Peters, soprano
Beniamino Gigli, tenor
Leonard Warren, baritone
Erna Berger, soprano
Jan Peerce, tenor
Nan Merriman, mezzo-soprano
Giuseppe Di Stefano, tenor
Frederic Jagel, tenor
Lucrezia Bori, soprano
Lina Pagliughi, soprano
Luisa Tetrazzini, soprano
Pasquale Amato, baritone
Josephine Jacoby, mezzo-soprano
Helen Field, soprano
Peter Dvorsky, tenor
Reinald Werrenrath, baritone
Giacomo Aragall, tenor
Tito Schipa, tenor
Landon Ronald, piano
Hjordis Schymberg, soprano
Alzbeta Michalkova, contralto
Carlo Forti, bass
Thomas Harper, tenor
George Cehanovsky, baritone
Giuseppe de Luca, baritone
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone
Joseph Schmidt, tenor
Arthur Davies, tenor
Elvira Galassi, soprano
Luisa Mandelli,
Ladislav Neshyba, bass
Adriana Lazzarini, contralto
Giuse Gerbino, mezzo-soprano
Vittorio Tatozzi,
Nicola Zaccaria, bass
William Dickie,
Robert Merrill, baritone
Giorgio Tozzi,
Lado Ataneli, baritone
Amelita Galli-Curci, soprano
Flora Perini, mezzo-soprano
Jozef Spacek, baritone
Robert Szucs, tenor
Jozef Abel, tenor
Ivica Neshybova, soprano
Peter Subert, tenor
Jitka Saparova, contralto
Jorma Hynninen, baritone
Martha Lipton, mezzo-soprano
Thelma Altman, mezzo-soprano
Salvatore Cottone, piano
Maria Callas, soprano
Tito Gobbi, baritone
Arturo la Porta, bass-baritone
Tommaso Frascati,
Leonardo Monreale,
Lidia Grandi,
Silvana Celli,
Santa Chissari,
Andrea Mineo,
Lily Pons, soprano
John Engelman, percussion
Yordy Ramiro, tenor
Indra Thomas, soprano
Kristine Jepson, mezzo-soprano
Matthew Polenzani, tenor
Mariusz Kwiecien, baritone
Mario Sammarco, baritone
Jean Rigby, contralto
Louis Quilico, baritone
Bidu Sayao, soprano
Jose Van Dam, baritone
Dinah Bryant, soprano
Jerome Pruett, tenor
Jeanne Gordon, contralto
Jussi Bjorling, tenor
Alain Trudel, sackbut
Eduard Tumagian, baritone
Leo Slezak, tenor
Cornelia Ptassek, soprano
Edna Thornton, contralto
Teruhiko Komori, baritone
Giovanni Paltrinieri, tenor
Luba Orgonasova, soprano
Marion Talley, soprano
Allan Monk, baritone
Annamaria Popescu, mezzo-soprano
Recording date: 28 December 1935
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Prelude - 2:01
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Questa o quella - 1:40
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Pari siamo! - 3:10
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Figlia! ... Mio padre! - 12:08
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E il sol dell' anima - 3:20
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Gualtier Malde ... Caro nome - 6:34
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Zitti, zitti - 1:38
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Ella mi fu rapita! ... Parmi veder le lagrime - 5:08
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Povero Rigoletto - 3:22
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Cortigiani, vil razza dannata - 4:21
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Parla ... siam soli ... Tutte le feste al tempio - 6:57
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La donna e mobile ... Un di, se ben rammentomi - 4:26
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Bella figlia dell'amore - 4:19
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Chi e mai - 6:07