Critic Göran Forsling offers a second MusicWeb International review for Verdi: Rigoletto featuring Dmitri Hvorostovsky:
“In the title role we hear the arguably greatest Verdi baritone of the last 25 years, Siberian Dmitri Hvorostovsky.… What we hear is… the voice we have got accustomed to during a recording career that goes back to 1990.…this is Verdi singing of the highest order. One can pick any phrase of importance in this large and arduous role and he makes something memorable of it. Listen for instance to Deh, non parlate al misero, a minute or so into the duet with Gilda (CD 1 tr. 10) or further on in the scene Ah, veglia, o donna (CD 1 tr. 12). His appearance before the courtiers in the second act, tortured and anxious (CD 2 tr. 5) is even more telling and Cortigiani (CD 2 tr. 6), the most heartrending of all arias, is difficult to defend oneself against in his reading. In fact the rest of the act and large portions of the last act are desert island music. This recording is a worthy memorial to the art of Dmitri Hvorostovsky – but it is more than that. It is also a studio recording of one of the great operas, made at a time when most of us thought that studio recordings was a phenomenon of the past – and it is a recording that…should give great pleasure to all Verdi lovers, yes, all opera lovers!”
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