Customer Reviews

Mozart: Don Giovanni

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mozart's operas were performed and recorded everywhere in the year of his bicentenary, 1956. This recording made by the Austrian Radio of a live performance given at the Salzburg Festival that year had to wait 28 years to be issued. When issued, it was rapturously reviewed in magazines like the "Gramophone", and has featured amongst the top recommendations ever since.

Presiding is the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, successor at Salzburg to Furtwaengler, before his own death in 1960. He leads an athletic, well-paced performance. If tempi are occasionally slow, they are nevertheless true to Mozart's wish that the opera be presented as a "drama in a joking style".

As for the cast, well, if they included the best of their era then, they now rank as a matchless ensemble! If anyone excels, it might be the glorious Elisabeth Grümmer and the mellifluous Leopold Simoneau as Anna and Ottavio. Just when you are wondering how the singing might be better, Gottlob Frick makes his final entry, at Don Giovanni's supper, as the Commendatore, crowning the night with majesty.

And the recording quality? Anyone considering purchasing a 1956 monaural recording will be glad to know that the quality here is some of the best of its time. True, there are stage bumps and clatterings to be heard, and ensemble isn't always perfect here and there, but always the voices and orchestra remain in clear focus and comfortable perspective. The benefits of catching a performance live (July 24th 1956), far outweigh these drawbacks. Applause is not edited out. An avalanche of applause is heard after Donna Anna's first aria, and occasionally thereafter. The effect is conducive to listening enjoyment rather then detrimental.

And if you already have a "Don Giovanni" in your collection? I urge you to consider adding this one. After all, there is no greater music to be heard anywhere, and Da Ponte's libretto and his characters are amongst the best in the annals of opera! Duration: 2 hours 55 minutes. Libretto not included.

Is Don Giovanni the greatest opera ever? I think so, though The Magic Flute or The Marriage of Figaro or La Traviata or La Boheme are also legitimate contenders. Still, for an opera which combines gravitas and humor, the dark and the light, one would be hard pressed to find better. That is why I have several performances of this outstanding work. My vote for the greatest performance goes to Giulini on EMI. The version which I believe is most exciting is an air check of a live performance in 1938 with Bruno Walter and Ezio Pinza, but unfortunately the sound is so poor that I cannot recommend it to anyone except the most fanatic listener. Of the modern recordings, I don't recommend Muti. I think his tempos are off, and his singers, who are usually good, don't click on that performance. Davis has a version on Philips which is pretty good but not that inspiring for me. So now let's turn to this recording. Actually we need to consider the two (or should I say three) great Salzburg versions of the 1950s -- the wonderful and dark versions by Furtwangler and the bright version by Mitropoulus. Each one has its virtues. You will not likely get a more serious -- even grave -- version than Furtwangler, especially his 1950 version on EMI. What a contrast then to the Mitropoulus version which emphasizes the fun Don Giovanni and Leporello have. Donna Elvira is tragic for Furtwangler, comic for Mitropoulus. This is ironic, for Furtwangler is a revered master while Mitropoulus was persecuted later in his career (for his homosexuality) and has been virtually forgotten. By the way, Furtwangler himself is a very complex character whose role in German culture and for the Nazi party is the subject of several excellent books. I tend to believe Menuhin that Furtwangler was personally decent but allowed himself to be used, but that is for another review. My recommendation is to start with the Giulini version. If you love this opera as much as I do, get one of the Furtwangler recordings and the Mitropoulus version, and listen to both to expand and deepen your appreciation of the dark and light sides of this masterpiece.

Absolutely agree with the 2nd reviewer - this is brilliant music making live so you can feel the real excitement. All in all my favourite Don Giovanni and I have five of them! Beats hands down the Gulini one which is in my view horribly over-rated.

I love this recording of this Salzburg live performance. The three sopranos, Grummer, della Casa, and Streich are in fantastic voice, they don't sound the same, and they are deliciously feminine. They are right on the money in all the arias! The lyric tenor, Simoneau, has hauntingly beautiful pianissimi. And Don Giovanni of Siepi, simply tosses off the compelling, erotic, and glorious phrases as if they were "sweet nothings." And the greatest artist of them all for that evening is the conductor, Dimitri Mitropoulos. Every note is throbbing with life! The sound is quite good. Bravi.

This is a superlative 'Don Giovanni' and one of my favorite live recordings of an opera, but it may not be your first choice for the "Don" on disc. Or could it? Mitropoulos is stunning throughout: he takes over where Furtwangler left off, and leads the Wiener Philharmoniker with admirable finesse and showmanship. The cast is one of the finest ever assembled, rivaled only by Giulini's crew for EMI. This 1956 performance was a brilliant night of opera's golden age, preserved here for anyone who loves great music. If you want stereo sound, look elsewhere; if you want the most exceptional Mozart singing of any era, the buck stops here. Essential.

Siepi isn't my favorite Don (he isn't my favorite Figaro, either), but I daresay nobody knows this opera or the title role better than he. His famously masculine, excessively brash characterization is nicely captured here. Fernando Corena was quite popular among Viennese operagoers in the 1950s, and acts the part of Leporello with understated spirit and charm (he's better in Krips's studio version, though); Frick is ideal in every way for Il Commendatore, sturdier here than you'd expect for a live recording; Walter Berry is a worthy addition, singing the rather thankless role of Masetto with ease. The gold star performance, however, must be given to Leopold Simoneau, who is quite simply the most perfect Mozartian tenor who ever lived: his subtle, simple, elegant singing is beyond compare, his agility with text extraordinary, as if he's really thinking the thoughts in the moment -- topped off with stirring pianissimos -- live in the opera house! -- I melt alongside the audience's thunderous applause. The two famous Ottavio arias are totally overwhelming and alone worth the price of this set.

Lisa della Casa is lovely as Elvira, and her portrayal is much better than it was for Krips's 1954 studio set. Streich is spot-on as Zerlina, somewhere in between Hilde Gueden's regal perfection and Audrey Mildmay's quirky provincialness. My favorite, though, is Elisabeth Grummer as the all-around best Donna Anna on disc. She's in sliiightly better voice for Furty in '53, but she's no less involved here. And what singing! She's a rare gem of golden 1950s and I love, love, love her.

The sound is mostly satisfactory but it can get in the way (you'll get over it!), so beginners should be wary: at the end of the day this is an ideal SECOND choice. For me, first choice is the (aforementioned) Giulini on EMI, recently re-released as a GROC. Lots of jaded opera buffs put it down for the sake of being contradictory, but it's a luminous performance that belongs in every opera collection. For an unruly departure from the norm, check out Harding's 1999 version with the electric Peter Mattei. Let's not forget the vintage 1954 Krips (especially if you love some of the cast members featured here, as I do -- and a pity, as always, that Grummer isn't in the studio). But this Mitropoulos is something extra special. Few opera recordings take you for such a splendid ride: back to the grand stylishness of the 1950s and the Salzburg festival.

You should own several recordings of this famously funny and frightening opera, and please make sure this is one of them! A tremendous achievement!

This don giovanni is absolutely superb!! The sound is very good and the voices are superbly caught - everyone is in TOP FORM!!

A legendary Don Giovanni that demands hearing!!

This is a live 1956 recording. But it is very clear considering that it is mono. the voices are so well caught that it doesn't affect the enjoyment.

THIS RECORDING IS AMAZING! ITS ONE OF THOSE FEW RECORDINGS, IN ALL GENRES OF MUSIC, THAT AFFECTS YOU AT EACH LISTEN JUST AS IT DID THE FIRST TIME. FROM TOP TO BOTTOM THE CAST IS WONDERFUL. SIEPI'S DON IS ONE THAT IS BOTH VICIOUS AND SENSUAL. CORENA'S LEPORELLO, WHITH HIS BEAUTIFUL, FULL BASS, IS THE PERFECT FOIL TO THE DON. ALL THE PRINCIPALS ARE EXCELLENT, HOWEVER TAKE SPECIAL NOTE OF SIMONEAU'S OTTAVIO. USUALLY THE WEAKEST OF THE SINGERS IN RECORDINGS, THIS OTTAVIO IS THE BEST ONE THAT I HAVE HEARD, ON DISC AND IN PERFORMANCE. HIS SINGING IN "DALLA SUA PACE" AND THE SMALL DUET WITH GRUMMER'S DONNA ANNA IN THE VERY LAST SCENE IS LEAVES YOU WANTING MORE. ALTHOUGH THE SOUND ISNT THE BEST, MITROPOULOS' VENNA PHILHARMONIC PERFECTLY COMPLIMETS THE SINGERS. THERE ARE RECORDINGS WITH BIGGER NAME CONDUCTORS AND SINGERS, BETTER SOUND AND PACKAGING, HOWEVER THIS IS CLEARLY THE BEST.

Mitropoulos proves himself the ultimate Mozartian. The incandescence of this performance is unmatched. With amazing clarity in sound - you can hear all the orchestral details. Best of all - all the singers are in peak form. Salzburg is, well, Salzburg - the ultimate place for performances of Mozart's operas.

The stony heartedness of this singular personage masquerades as passion and reflecting his intense affective lacks. Having no emotional center, he assumes the role of tourist of love, without commitment or extension of his individuality. This incapacity to fragment his alter ego illustrates this well know statement of Bernard Shaw when affirms Don Giovanni is not really the man who has possessed many women, but the man who has never possessed any woman, and so when he decides not trespassing the barrier between the innocence and the experience he becomes in narcissistic archetype per excellence. That explains why he every time he feels threatened, runs away from the last with mayor pawn than he runs after the next woman.

This enlightened version has all what you demand from a refined, elegant and passionate reading of this character. One of the most notable and personal achievements of this admirable conductor.