Blu Tramonto Leo Ortolani

Singer and keyboard player Gianni Leone tried a solo career with the new name of Leo Nero after the demise of his band Il Balletto di Bronzo, and the result was a very good album, Vero, released by Harvest in 1977 and recorded a year before in New York. The album is totally played and sung by Leo himself, and despite some commercial pop songs, it has some good moments reminding of his old band's sound, like in "La Discesa Nel Cervello", "Il Castello" and the intense closing track "Una Gabbia Per Me". Obviously the sound is mainly keyboard based, but Leone played drums, minimoog bass lines and even guitar on some tracks.

For many opera fans the favourite Rigoletto on dvd remains the 1983 film version starring the young Pavarotti as the dashing Duke, his irrepressible singing and high spirits contrasting sharply with the gut wrenching wretchedness of the jester played by Wixell almost to perfection,and of course the inimitable Gruberova as Gilda the jester's daughter.(For me this together with the Domingo/Migenes 'Carmen', and the Domingo/Stratas 'La Traviata' represents the best of opera films). Now comes the 2006 production of Rigoletto, staged by the Zurich Opera House with Chorus and Orchestra wonderfully conducted by Santi, recorded in High-Definition and transfered to an Arthaus Blu Ray disc of breathtaking quality. I'm not exaggerating. Even by today's Hi-Def standards, the picture quality here is simply stunning: inky blackness, realistic night time scenes accurately rendered with proper light and shadow effects, atmospheric blue lighting, and the sets and costumes show up in vivid pop-up colours with razor sharp contrasts… By Chhan Thuan Kiat