Verdi - Rigoletto / Domingo, MacNeil, Cotrubas, Diaz, Levine, Metropolitan Opera

Starring:PlÃ¡cido Domingo, Cornell MacNeil, Ileana Cotrubas, Justino DÃaz, Isola Jones, Ariel Bybee, John Cheek, Robert Goodloe, John Atherton, Philip Booth, Loretta di Franco, Peter Sliker, Alma Jean Smith
Director: Kirk Browning
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

An excellent performance
SECOND-EVER "LIVE FROM THE MET" TELECAST
most moving!
interesting production
The Tragedy of Rigoletto

Verdi - Rigoletto / Domingo, MacNeil, Cotrubas, Diaz, Levine, Metropolitan Opera
Starring: Plácido Domingo , Cornell MacNeil , Ileana Cotrubas , Justino Díaz , and Isola Jones
Director: Kirk Browning
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001BPPO4
Release Date: 2004-08-10

Customer Reviews:

An excellent performance.......2007-06-27

This is a reissue (digitally remastered) of a 1977 Live from the Met telecast. The production (scenery % costumes) are traditional 1970s Met, the singers and conducting are excellect (Cotrubas had a little trouble with a few of the high notes), and the remastered video and audio bring it very close to todays technical standards. This is the best Rigoletto I have seen on DVD.

SECOND-EVER "LIVE FROM THE MET" TELECAST.......2007-02-16

I never had the chance to see this telecast when it first aired, and to my knowledge it was never issued commercially (or rebroadcast) until now. Of the three recently issued early PBS telecasts (the others being "Boheme" with Scotto & Pavarotti, and "Luisa Miller" with Scotto & Domingo), this is perhaps the weakest, as some other posters have suggested. Still, it ranks as one of the finest performances of Verdi's middle period masterpiece on video. I think it's hilarious that Domingo actually admits to Tony Randall, on camera, that he "despises" the role of the Duke! Can't help wondering if he doth protest too much about the character's heelish demeanor (a la Jon Vickers and Tannhauser?), and instead it's just a matter of "oh, God, those high Bs!" But he nails both of them, onstage and off, big and loud, albeit a bit rough around the edges. Otherwise he sings the role with real slancio and style--considering he did the role only a handful of times, I think it's fair to call this a historic performance. He looks absolutely wonderful to boot.

Cotrubas is predictably superb, if showing a hint of strain on a couple of top notes--her top was never her strong suit, but projecting a touching vulnerability certainly was. Her Gilda is irresistible.

Cornell MacNeil is the weak link, but I have trouble criticizing him too heavily in this performance. Yes, by now he had largely lost the rich, juicy core of his huge baritone, and had revamped his technique--not very successfully--to try to keep his increasingly wobbly tone focused and forward, resulting in that tiresome wide-open tonal quality. But in the intermission interviews Mac talks of taking the previous summer off to rest and study (and having suffered through some truly ugly singing of his on Met radio broadcasts in the spring of 1977, he NEEDED time off!) And the fact is, it helped tremendously--aside from some pitch lapses and the increasingly raw, wide-open quality of his tone around the break, the voice here is amazingly firm, focused, settled. Can't quite say the same about his interpretation, which tends to go in and out of focus--and he spends far too much time staring at Levine. But when he's fully "in" the character it's really pretty impressive. The voice was no longer a thing of beauty, but he was pretty much in command of it here... sadly, I remember him sliding back into bad vocal habits as the 77-78 season went on (BUH--UH--WUH--UH--WUH etc.) Levine's conducting seems similarly unsettled--racing through some sections, dragging others lethargically. But overall it's an impressive performance all round, undoubtedly one of the best "Rigolettos" on video. I even rather like the Dexter production.

DG's remastering is remarkably good, and the sound here is surprisingly clean for such an early PBS effort--this was only their second live telecast from the Met, following the March 1977 "Boheme." But in general they tended to mic the singers rather too distantly, and seemed to get way too much back-of-the-wall "echo"--something the Met radio engineers managed to avoid. Why didn't PBS simply use the radio mic setup? (I understand that by 1980 or so, they began utilizing an audio crew from the European video outfit Unitel, or at least retained them as consultants [?], and later Met telecasts have far cleaner sound.)

most moving!.......2006-11-17

This trio performance of MacNeil, Cotrubas and Domingo is overwhelming, and actually I was on the verge of tears upon seeing it. What more can I say? Just have your copy of it, please!

interesting production.......2006-11-06

The production is faithful to the style of Verdi. Singers did a good job. Orrchestra is fine.

The Tragedy of Rigoletto.......2006-06-09

And the tragedy is that there is no decent performance of this opera available. The sets in this production are acceptable but later productions are more attractive. As the Duke Domingo cannot be bettered and Cotrubas is a touching Gilda. The other members of the cast are fine as well except for the title role. MacNeil is simply inadequate, his tone dry and forced and frequently under pitch. Its very painful to see him struggle through this performance. His presence ruined the whole opera for me. The Met certainly should have been able to find a more suitable singer to portay this all important role. His work is not at a professional level at this stage of his career. Terrible, terrible, terrible!

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