At the start of
his career, the young Jose Carreras can be heard as Duke. Why he was not
commercially recorded in this opera cannot be comprehended because Carreras
vocally had everything that makes an ideal Duke: an alluring timbre, passionate
ardor and Italian belcanto training. But even then he had the tendency
to force the top notes. Patricia Wise is a lovely Gilda with a girlish
soprano, unblemished top. A very contemporary pair of siblings are Margaret
Yauger (Maddalena) and Richard T. Gill (Sparafucile). How Louis Quilico
in absolute top form facet rich and with total commitment interprets the
title role, partly agressive, sets high standards. Even without visual
impact the listener is given an acoustic impressive and believable psychograph
of a mentally torn character. An experience for the listeners is the orchestra
( pay attention especially to the string-players!) under the baton of Julius
Rudel. One has seldom heard such a clearly outlined and logical orchestration
of an audio recording pushing towards a tragedy. Inspite of a dramatic
baseline, Rudel gets unsuspected musical details from the score and lavishes
every kind of care and attention onto his singers. This recording, which
has a bonus excerpt added from the 1978 "Ballo" from Covent Garden with
Carreras and Sylvia Sass, puts many studio and live recordings in the shade
and because of the real exciting interpretation is a must for collectors,
of course also for Carreras fans who want to hear the tenor live in this
role.** It is also noted that collectors know the Rigoletto production
from a performance four days later (with Susanne Marsee in the role of
Maddalena) as a private LP recording on Robin Hood records which was more
deserving to be released on CD because of its overall excellent sound quality
and altogether more effective results. **
Translation
© Heidemarie Hochstein |