What to read and hear.

WAR AND PEACE

Harlow Robinson's Sergei Prokofiev: A Biography (imminent in paperback, Northeastern) is the standard treatment of the composer's life; Robinson has also edited Selected Letters of Sergei Prokofiev (also Northeastern). Technical-minded listeners may find Nell Minturn's The Music of Sergei Prokofiev (Yale) stimulating. Among editions of Tolstoy's novel, the Norton Critical Edition (paperback) includes background and critical material. Apparently the score is not available for sale in the U.S.

With more than fifty roles, War and Peace presents casting challenges that no recording meets with complete success. With an international roster including many Slavophones, the 1986 set led by Mstislav Rostropovich (Erato, 4 CDs) best captures both the opera's scale and its detail. The 1991 Kirov performance under Valery Gergiev (Philips, 3 CDs) is vivid but less strongly cast, while the live version from Spoleto under Richard Hickox (Chandos, 4 CDs) is burdened by uneven vocalism and intrusive stage noise. Perhaps the most characterful singing (with Galina Vishnevskaya a more youthful Natasha than she was for Erato) is in the out-of-print 1961 Bolshoi recording under Alexander MelikPashayev (Melodiya, mono, 3 CDs), though here the score is significantly abridged. The 1991 Kirov video, in a production staged by Graham Vick, appears to be unavailable at present.

RIGOLETTO

Julian Budden's Verdi (Vintage, out of print) is a fine concise introduction to life and works; The Verdi Companion, edited by William Weaver and Martin Chusid (Norton paperback), adds absorbing background. Mary Jane Phillips-Matz's detailed Verdi (Oxford) supersedes previous biographies. Budden discusses Rigoletto in Volume 2 of his exhaustive The Operas of Giuseppe Verdi (Oxford paperback); he also contributes to the ENO/Royal Opera Guide (Riverrun paperback), which includes libretto and singing translation. Victor Hugo's play, Le Roi S'Amuse, is currently unavailable in English. Schirmer publishes a vocal score, Dover a full score; Ricordi offers both in the new, pricey critical edition.

Recorded Rigolettos (2 CDs) come in two basic varieties. Among the expeditious ones, Georg Solti's (with Robert Merrill, BMG) musters a strong, balanced cast. The more spacious conceptions of Rafael Kubelik (with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, DG) and Tullio Serafin (with Tito Gobbi and Maria Callas, EMI, mono) accommodate more complex characterizations, while the vocalism of Richard Bonynge's principals (Sherrill Milnes, Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti) is its own recommendation (Decca). Pavarotti's Duke can also be heard in a Met recording under James Levine (DG), with Cheryl Studer and Vladimir Chernov, and seen in Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's extravagant film (Decca, VHS, DVD), with Ingvar Wixell and Edita Gruberova. Dipping into Rigoletto's earlier recorded history, Leonard Warren's potent hunchback is preserved in Renato Cellini's 1950 recording (mono, Preiser, Naxos); Riccardo Stracciari, under Lorenzo ...