VERDI Rigoletto • Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, cond; Franco Bonisolli (Duke of Mantua); Rolando Panerai (Rigoletto); Margherita Rinaldi (Gilda); Bengt Rundgren (Sparafucile); Viorica Cortez (Maddalena); Staatskapelle Dresden; Dresden St Op Ch • ARTS 43073 (2 CDs: 108:32 &, no translation)

This studio recording dates from 1977, and is an average rather than outstanding account of Verdi’s popular opera. The sound quality is good for the period, though it can be a little soft-grained against the up-front punch that a digital recording would have. The Dresden orchestra acquits itself well and with a fair sense of atmosphere under Molinari-Pradelli’s competent, though hardly scintillating, conducting. In common with many recordings of the era, the soloists are forwardly placed against both orchestra and chorus. The latter sings competently, though can congest the sound somewhat in tutti passages.

Franco Bonisolli was never one to set the stage alight for me, though vocally he was in his prime around the late 1970s and early 1980s, so quite possibly I heard him live too late in his career to get the best impression of his abilities. He is a full-voiced and very Italianate Duke, delivering “Questa o quella” and “La donna è mobile” with gusto. Rolando Panerai perhaps has a lighter vocal timbre than one encounters in the title role sometimes, but he delivers the part competently enough by bringing out a fair degree of Rigoletto’s anguish. Bengt Rundgren is a solid rather than world-class Sparafucile. Likewise, the same can be said of Margherita Rinaldi’s Gilda, as she can treat the passagework of “Caro nome” more as an exercise than expressive of emotion. Viorica Cortez’s Maddalena is of rather higher quality, however. The booklet gives a brief synopsis in English, German, and Italian, accompanied by the libretto in Italian only.

Since this is obviously not a first choice contender for a library unless one should like any of the singers in particular, I would recommend EMI’s 1955 La Scala recording conducted by Tullio Serafin as the leading alternative. The cast is headed by the immortal trio of Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, and Giuseppe di Stefano. They make Verdi’s long series of duets within the opera into an integrated whole, aided in no small part by Serafin’s wholly sympathetic conducting.

FANFARE: Evan Dickerson