Verdi: Rigoletto 1955

Don't understand problem with the 1 star reviewer. Try again. As a hard copy CD, this is far and away the best mastering this performance will ever have. The clarity is now MUCH MUCH improved.. The voices are close up front, but clear, though in one aria Callas has a bit of slight distortion. The orchestra is much better balanced and finally sounds like music instead of background noise. All the boxiness of the other many issues is no more. Sound is much more open here with a lot more air and sound stage. Still not today's demonstration discs, but much more than acceptable. Toss all your other copies, but save the libretto as there is none here. This is the only Calla Rigoletto you'll ever want.

Very good remastering. Callas sounds fineOnly bad thing is that sending records by mail takes about 90 days. They arrived yesteerday to Chile.

The finest performance on record. There-mastering job by EMI is simply incredible. It brought the performance to life as though the recording were made yesterday.The packaging is unacceptable. It re-defines the idea of cheap. Too bad.

Bad quality recording. Disc 1 cannot be loaded on computer.

We have here one of the greatest conductors of Italian opera, Tullio Serafin, with the greatest Duke, Giuseppe di Stefano; the greatest Gilda, Maria Callas; and the greatest Rigoletto, Tito Gobbi, on a single record. Additionally, this latest remastering brags a very clear, intimate mono sound. Need I say anymore?

This is considered by many to be one of the best recordings of Rigoletto and it's not hard to see why. Most listeners here will probably come to this set for Callas's Gilda, and it's true that she's in top form. But actually, the real star of the show is Tito Gobbi in the title role, who gives us an incredibly moving and well-characterized performance. Giuseppe di Stefano's Duke is also commandingly sung, and to top it off, Serafin conducts with fire and excitement. Musically speaking, I think this recording stands heads and shoulders over the famous Pavarotti/Milnes/Sutherland recording.I haven't heard earlier remasterings of this recording, but the newest remastering here features very good mono sound. Highly recommended.

I purchased for nostalgic reasons.Excellent.Highly recommend.Such I intend purchasing more to compliment my collection.

Just what we wanted prior to seeing the opera live.

Quite Simply the Best Ever Performance. Unless you had first class gramophone equipment with which to play the original records the re-mastered CD's have given it an edge you will have not heard before. Buy it.

Great voices and performances by the greatest opera singers, Gobbi magnificent but also di Stefano and Callas, brilliant CD

La divina at her best. Great