Made for Eurodisc in 1985 in co-operation with Bavarian Radio, this recording of Rigoletto has considerable merit. With the traditional theatre cuts in the big Gilda/Rigoletto duet and elsewhere, it is less complete than the very fine Giulini set on DG and ultimately less compelling than the Serafin on EMI with Gobbi, Callas and di Stefano; but it is sensibly led by Gardelli, carefully produced and recorded, well cast in most of the comprimario roles, and of some interest in the matter of the three principals.
It is useful to have on record Giacomo Aragall as the Duke, one of his most admired roles. He made his Covent Garden debut with it in 1966 and it remains a stylish, clean-cut, ardent and yet nicely modulated performance that merits preservation on record. Curiously, one of Aragall's earliest recorded roles, Alfredo in the 1969 Decca La traviata was in a similar largely non-Italianate context, with Fischer-Dieskau as Germont pere, Lorengar and Maazel. On this Eurodisc recording, the Rigoletto is Bernd Weikl. It is a carefully thought out and generally well sung account of the role, though, paradoxically, ''Pari siamo'' is not one of the performance's high points. It lacks inwardness and in the tight compass of this great soliloquy Weikl seems to be taking too many ultimately unhelpful liberties with the notes. Elsewhere, the characterization goes to the borders of both roughness and sentimentality without quite crossing into either territory, but one values the commitment and intelligence of the performance.
Lucia Popp is a sympathetic Gilda, predictably professional and surprisingly idiomatic in a role that has found out plenty of Italian sopranos in its day. If you heard this performance of the opera in the theatre probably at a higher price than Eurodisc are asking for these two CDs you ought to come away well pleased, on record, though, the competition is formidable and in the last resort this is a good Rigoletto rather than a memorable one.'