Considered by many to be stylistically the most characteristic and most effective performance of Rigoletto on record, this 1955 taping remains a classic against which all newcomers are judged. Although Maria Callas undertook Gilda only twice in the opera house, and despite the wide tessitura, she accomplishes the music effortlessly, ranging from strikingly articulated coloratura to beautifully phrased and sustained legato. With Tito Gobbi and Giuseppe Di Stefano in no less superb form, closely abetted by Tullio Serafin’s incomparable pacing of the orchestra, this is a performance once heard never to be forgotten.