CD: Richard Bonynge/London Symphony Orchestra with Milnes, Pavarotti, and Sutherland: Verdi: Rigoletto


The Confessional for the Culturally Clueless is now open, and we're ready to hand out penances. Come on now; it's not so bad. I've been there a few times myself, mispronouncing composers' and singers' names, not knowing one Dutch painter from another. You know who you are, you movie critics who bash classics you never saw, and you travel writers who see the Lorelei or Brunnhilde in every German female.

At the top of my list of potential penitents is Linda Hirshman, who in a recent Washington Post opinion piece invoked"La donna e mobile," from Verdi's Rigoletto, to drub women as fickle -- politically fickle, at that.

Imagine that. The woman does not know the libretto. Get Ms. Hirshman out from behind a computer screen and over to a performance of Rigoletto before the Washington National Opera gets to the next item on its schedule.

Of course you classical music fans already know that Rigoletto is a tale of love and vengeance, a heartbreaking account of what happens when a man shuts his heart to compassion -- and a woman is willing to risk everything for the same. The consequences are terrible indeed when Rigoletto (baritone), the hunchbacked court jester who has made a profession of mocking cuckolds and distraught fathers, discovers that his cherished and sheltered daughter, Gilda (soprano), is the latest victim of scandal.

The culprit, of course, is that most faithless of characters, the duke of Mantua, who gets to show off that golden tenor with "La donna e mobile" -- between conquests, of course.

It's called irony, Linda.

I'll leave off plot summaries here and get to the music, which will hurl you from one emotional state to another. As operas go, there's quite a bit of drama at here, and it even translates quite well in the recordings. There's that overture filled with foreboding, followed by the tender duets between Rigoletto and his daughter, and of course the duke's appropriately charming solos. That guy does get around (Listen to "Possente amor mi chiama"and "Questa o quella").

"Caro nome," Gilda's reflection on first love, for all its delicacy and sweetness, is every bit as laden with irony as "La donna e mobile," given who is pursuing her, in what guise and at what cost.

And the third act quartet blending the voices of Rigoletto, Gilda, the duke, and Maddalena (contralto) is still one of my favorite moments in opera.

For those of you searching for a complete recording of Rigoletto, there are several options at the ready on Olsson's opera shelf. The most tempting is possibly the London version with Sherrill Milnes as Rigoletto, Luciano Pavarotti as the duke, and the great Joan Sutherland as Gilda. There's tremendous beauty in the voices, and drama and emotion in the performance. If Sutherland strikes you as a somewhat unconventional choice for Gilda, do listen to what she does with the role. Her duets with Milnes are a particular joy.

And Pavarotti, of course, is Pavarotti, at the top of his game and also making it look like fun and not work (appropriate enough, given his role).

I'm going to be the skunk at the garden party here, though, and mention one of your other tempting options for a full-length Rigoletto: the Deutsche Grammophon recording with Piero Cappuccilli, Ileana Cotrubas, and Placido Domingo. Again, the matching of voices to material is most attractive, and I particularly like Domingo's characterization of the duke. He does sound like a lover here, and it's no wonder Gilda is only too ready to follow that enticing voice.

Then again, when tenor meets soprano, it's bound to end in tears. But oh, that music.