Merrill is in splendid voice. If only he were around today to show off that gorgeous instrument!...Peters is charming, but somewhat mechanical. A pity—at her best, she was quite a touching Gilda....Tozzi is appropriately sinister, and Rota is sultry in a generalized sort of way. The supporting singers run the gamut from unremarkable to very good…The four Merrill arias offered as a bonus come from an RCA LP recital that was recorded a few days after the Rigoletto sessions. Merrill is a tower of strength vocally. The ‘Credo’ is rather tame (his first Iagos were in 1963), but he is more involved in the other selections, the ‘Largo’ especially—a sparkling performance.

…It had become the habit of RCA to take the best of the New York Metropolitan Opera’s cast to Rome for their opera recordings in this period. What they did not have in that venue, or others for that matter, was the quality of recording engineers sported by the likes of Decca. This was a state of affairs that lasted until RCA’s commercial association with Decca came along and allowed exchange of artists as well as engineers. The quality of the recording in the rather boxy acoustic of the Rome Opera House is allied to overload distortion as early as the prelude. It is the first drawback. Strangely the Robert Merrill appendix (CD 2 trs. 17-21) is far better balanced and does not suffer those drawbacks. Merrill was often seen as the junior partner to fellow American Leonard Warren at the Met in this period. It continued until the latter’s untimely death on the Met stage in 1960 during a performance of Verdi’s La Forza del Destino. Warren’s Rigoletto is caught live at the Met earlier in the year of this recording. Robert Merrill (1917-2004) is somewhat lighter in tone than Warren and whilst less expressive his range, legato and rock-solid vocal quality would be even more admired in this repertoire today than it was in this period. His rendition of Rigoletto’s taunting of Ceprano (CD 1 tr.3) in the first scene lacks the vitriolic bite of Gobbi in the EMI version with Callas. His interpretation also suffers from the odd raw vocal patches of his illustrious Italian colleague. Merrill’s Pari siamo as Rigoletto compares himself with the assassin Sparafucile and is full of character (CD 1 tr.7) as is his sympathetic response to Gilda’s plight as she emerges from the Duke’s room after her experiences there of his true rapacious nature (CD 2. trs.5-7). Merrill is not as expressive as Warren, Gobbi or Taddei in Cortgiani vil razza dannata (CD 2 tr.4). He compensates as Rigoletto realises with horror that the Duke is alive and it is his daughter is in the sack. This illustrates the best of the singer and his interpretation (CD 2 trs 15-16).

… Jussi Björling…sings with vocal elegance and a wide range of tonal variety and expression. Particularly impressive is his Ella ma fu rapita…Parmi vedir (CD 2 tr.1) and if he holds the final note of La donna e mobile (CD 2 tr.9) a second or two too long it is a minor quibble. Björling’s plangent tone and capacity to inflect a phrase is ideally suited to this role. I was somewhat equivocal about the Gilda of Roberta Peters (b.1930) in the Met live recording. In this performance I find her much more convincing compared to Callas on EMI, despite the latter’s efforts to convey a young girl…and also compared to Lina Pagliughi on Cetra. Peters’ trill in Caro nome (CD 1 tr.12) is nothing to write home about but her steady fulsome tone has its own virtues elsewhere. She is convincingly fraught in Tutte le feste (CD 2 tr.6) as Gilda confesses her shame to her father and seeks his solace. The American bass Giorgio Tozzi (b.1923) is adequate if a little penny-plain as Sparafucile. His final note in Quel? Vecchio maledivami as he leaves Rigoletto after their meeting is a little manufactured and fails to chill my spine (CD 1 tr.6). The Italian Anna Maria Rota (b.1932) as Maddalena is suitably seductive and effective in her later pleading with her brother not to kill him (CD 2 trs 10-13). Jonel Perlea (1900-1970), an often-underrated conductor, supports his singers without doing so to the detriment of Verdi’s drama. The performance has the minor cuts traditional at that time.

The Merrill arias appendix illustrates his vocal strengths and minor weaknesses. His legato in Il balen (CD 2 tr.18) is a delight and is also present in Germont’s aria (tr.19) although in the latter he cannot express the pain of the father as he tries to persuade his son of the virtues of their home in Provence. Merrill is also excellent in the brio of Figaro’s Largo al Factotum (tr.20) whilst not being suitably saturnine in Iago’s Credo (tr.17). Those things being said, I can live with the tonal smoothness and excellent diction of his singing any day of the week, particularly when compared with those with pretensions as Verdi baritones before the public today!

The Naxos booklet has a brief introductory essay and excellent artist profiles as well as a good track-related synopsis. Working with German LPs, restoration engineer Mark Obert-Thorn has done what he can with something of a sow’s ear in terms of recording quality.