Cheap Verdi - Rigoletto / Chailly, Pavarotti, Wixell, Gruberova, Vienna Philharmonic (DVD) (Jean-Pierre Ponnelle) Price

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Customer Reviews of Verdi - Rigoletto / Chailly, Pavarotti, Wixell, Gruberova, Vienna Philharmonic

Top Notch
This is a dynamic and exciting show with the leads at the top of their game.
Rigoletto has never been more convincingly acted than in the hands of Ingvar Wixell. His voice is powerful and fulll of different colors to enjoy throuought the opera. His g# at the end of the 2nd act is extremely impressive. He radiates internal struggle and pain and earns his stars as not only a great baritone but a great actor.
Gilda gets a wonderful treatment by Gruderova, who can sing a pianissimo as well as you can hear. Her joy and pain is clearly visible throughout and she really does portray well the confused, miserable creature that Gilda becomes quite well. unlike pavarotti, she takes very few liberties from the score and sings within it well.
Pavarotti sounds great. This is the kind of role that is made for his voice. His duke is beautifully sounded in his mature but lyric voice. This is the kind of spinto singing that makes pavarotti one of the greatest tenors of all time. His acting, while entertaining, is unconvincing. He has a disturbing habit of never blinking his eyes during Aria's which can bug the viewer.
Overall this is a absolutley fabulous entertainment experience. The only reason I give it 4 stars is the lip synching. I think it takes away from the opera experience to have it recorded and dubbed into the scene. The singers expression and the excitement of the opera is increased when it is live. I think, however, it is a worthwhile buy for opera and non-opera fans alike. The story and presentation is wonderful and the singing doubly so.

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a winner for Wixell
I usually do not care for "movie" versions of opera, preferring a filmed live performance, but this one is most enjoyable, and has some standout performances.
Released in 1983, it was made on location in Mantua, with good cinematography in a pallete of browns and dark greys.
Pavarotti is the Duke of Mantua, looking strong and robust, but I must confess I thought his performance very one-dimensional, continually loud, and as an actor is much the weakest in the cast.
Edita Gruberova's Gilda is extremely interesting; she gets stronger in each scene, and I found her performance to be quite touching and wonderful. Her "Caro Nome" is one that I truly loved, full of sweetness and vulnerability, and delicate trills.

Ingvar Wixell's Rigoletto is superb, brilliantly portraying the many sides of the hunchbacked jester, from maliciously plotting revenge, to tenderly loving his daughter and the memory of his wife. His voice is rich and full, and he makes the most of Verdi's gorgeous score.
Victoria Vergara is a stunning and seductive Maddalena, and Ferruccio Fulanetto's Sparafucile is a creepy villain with very scary jagged teeth, and both are in fine vocal form.
Riccardo Chailly conducts the Vienna Choir and Philharmonic with great pacing, and this is a Rigoletto well worth watching, even for those who like me, are not "movie" opera fans.

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Great version, but i prefer the on-stage ones
I bought this dvd because, when i saw it for the first time (like 10 ten years ago) was the best sung version and the cast was superb. My favorites are the direction of Chailly (i find it great, dinamic and precise), the voice of Pavarotti (ONLY the voice, the acting sucks) especially singing my favorite aria "possente amor mi chiama", and giving a high D that i liked much. Now, i prefer the on-stage versions, so i don't like this DVD anymore. But i consider that this could be, in some way, a referencial version about what Rigoletto is musically...