Recordings Review: Thinking Outside the Sack

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Rigoletto. 

by Paul J. Pelkonen

One had the feeling that the marketing department at DG weren't trying too hard to sell CDs with this cover,
which appeared on the initial 1980s pressing of this set. Image © Universal Classics. 

This 1964 La Scala recording of Rigoletto features the unusual choice of acclaimed German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role and Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik leading the proceedings. That sounded pretty strange when I first saw this set sitting on a shelf in a used CD store in Boston, but surprisingly it works.