Since this version first appeared on LP, the production from which it derives has achieved a kind of legendary status. Although it is said to have made its last appearance at the Coliseum, rumour has it that it may be resurrected by public demand. Anyone who enjoyed this English National Opera production in the theatre will certainly want to have a recorded memory of it. Listening to the recording again one is reminded of the generally high quality of the singing and acting. Rawnsley's Rigoletto comes across as a real character, a reading matured and warmed by many performances on stage, even when it's sometimes a shade over-emphatic for recording purposes. The same goes for Arthur Davies's jaunty Duke and John Tomlinson's insinuating, surly Sparafucile. Helen Field is an eager, highly-strung Gilda, quite a personal interpretation. The support is mostly excellent.
Mark Elder, a splendid Verdian, misses nothing in the score, but occasionally, on this CD transfer I found the orchestral contribution obtrusively loud with something of the fierce reverberation one sometimes hears at the Coliseum itself. Indeed, the whole recording has that glare which sometimes disfigures digital sound. Those unfamiliar with the Jonathan Miller staging, may find the translation anachronistic: certainly the very English pronunciation does to an extent vitiate the idea of setting the piece in 1950s New York, especially when you can't see the stage trappings.'