Learning About Opera; Rigoletto

We may go see our first opera next month.  In preparation, I decided to learn more about opera.  I picked up the following book as a starting point:
   Fred Plotkin, Opera 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Opera (New York, Hyperion, 1994)

One quote from Plotkin: 
To me, opera is about consideration of the human experience.  Opera audiences become so involved with performances because they face emotional truths most of us don't confront in daily life.  The late twentieth century, with its rapid-fire information flow, does not make room for the reflection that opera affords.  During a three-hour operatic performance one can focus on the issues that opera explores and find personal meeting in them.  Every human emotion and activity--love, lust incest, hatred, fidelity, bravery, fear, humor, is enacted in opera, but on a grand scale.  It's like going to an amusement park and looking at yourself in one of those elongated fun-house mirrors.  What we see in opera is ourselves, as long as we are honest enough to admit it.

The first opera they recommend learning is Verdi's Rigoletto.  I found the following version at the North Hollywood Branch Library. 
Giuseppe Verdi, Rigoletto, Carlo Maria Guilini, conductor
starring Placido Domingo, Piero Cappuccilli, Ileana Cotrubas
Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft 1980.