Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099404228
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: VERDI
Release Date: 01 January 2001
Label: Naxos - Historical / Naxos Historical
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 636943114827
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: VERDI
Description
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)Rigoletto (Highlights)Melodrama in 3 ActsLibretto: Francesco Maria PiaveDuke 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 - HalberdiersThe scene is set in the city of Mantua and its environs. The period is the 16th Century.Slovak Philharmonic ChorusSlovak Radio Symphony OrchestraAlexander Rahbari, conductor Giuseppe Verdi's career spans three quarters ofthe nineteenth century. He was born in 1813 at Le Roncole, near Busseto, theson of a tavern-keeper, and distinguished himself locally in music. The encouragementand patronage of his future father-in-law, Antonio Barezzi, a merchant inBusseto, allowed him further study in Milan, before returning to Busseto as maestrodi musica. His first venture into opera, a reasonably successfulone, was in 1839 with Oberto. This was followed, however, by the failureof Un giomo di regno, written at a period when the composer suffered thedeath of his wife and two children. His early reputation was established by theopera 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 andfervent supporter of Italian national unity. His name itself was treated as anacronym for the proposed monarch of a united Italy, 'Vittorio Emanuele R?¿d'Italia', and much of his work in the period of unification wassusceptible to patriotic interpretation. His long association with the singerGiuseppina Strepponi led to their marriage in 1859, the year of Un ballo inmaschera. He completed his last opera, Falstaff, in 1893, four yearsbefore her death, but felt himself unequal to further Shakespearian operas thatwere then proposed. He died while staying in Milan, early in 1901, his deaththe subject of national mourning throughout Italy.The opera Rigoletto was first staged atLa Fenice in Venice on 11 March, 1851. A year earlier Verdi had expressed hisdelight with Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse, finding in Triboulet,the central character, a creation worthy of Shakespeare. He urged his librettistFrancesco Maria Piave, poet and stage manager of La Fenice, to secure theapproval of the censors as soon as possible. Piave did as Verdi suggested, butwhatever verbal approval he had from the censors was denied when it came to thepoint. The operatic version of Le roi s'amuse under the title Lamaledizione (The Curse) was stimatized as immoral and obscene. Theobscenity lay chiefly in the fact that the plot deals with the unscrupulousactivities of a profligate king.Piave's first suggested changes did not pleaseVerdi. The King, Francis I, was to be a mere noble
Description
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)RigolettoThe opera Rigoletto, described as a Melodramma, was first staged at La Fenice in Venice on 11th March 1851. A year earlier Verdi had expressed his delight with Victor Hugo’s play Le roi s’amuse, finding in Triboulet, the court jester at the centre of the drama, 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 Hugo’s play, under the title La maledizione ('The Curse'), was stigmatized as immoral and obscene, the latter stricture lying 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 hidden in a sack and Triboletto, the original of Rigoletto, 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, 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’s problems were not only with the censors and, to some extent, with Piave. He also had serious reservations about the proposed prima donna, Signora Sanchioli, known, Verdi suggested, for her Michelangelo poses. The final cast had Teresa Brambilla as the first Gilda, a 38-year-old, one of seven sisters well known on the operatic stage. The French-Italian baritone Felice Varesi, who had created the title rôle in Verdi’s 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 1950 recording at the ballroom of Manhattan Center in New York City cast the experienced Verdian singer Leonard Warren as Rigoletto. Warren had been born in New York in 1911 and made his stage d&ea
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