Verdi: Rigoletto

Verdi: Rigoletto

• CALLAS / SERAFIN / TEATRO ALLA
• MUSICA CLASICA
• INTERNATIONAL
• MUSIC

Nobody steals the spotlight when Maria Callas is onstage, but Tito Gobbi never lets us forget that this show is called <I>Rigoletto</I>, not <I>Gilda</I>. Neither singer has one of the century's prettiest voices; both have dramatic presence, impact, and subtlety--based as much on their control of verbal nuance as on musicianship--that make their characters three-dimensional, the story meaningful, the emotions real, varied, and intense. His role is bigger and more complex than hers is. He is almost constantly onstage, and his music runs the whole gamut from fatherly tenderness, to regret at a life gone wrong, to explosive rage. Sparks fly when they sing together, and Tullio Serafin conducts with an exemplary grasp of the opera and a detailed knowledge of his cast's capabilities. <I>--Joe McLellan</I>