Customer Reviews

Mozart - Don Giovanni / Terfel · Fleming · Murray · Pertusi · Lippert · Groop · Scaltriti · Luperi · LPO · Solti

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Bryn Terfel's Opera Arias album with James Levine gave us a taste of how his Don Giovanni would sound when he sang Don's serenade. Immediately one could see his portrayal brings to life the dark almost demonic side of the celebrated character, much different than a typical baritone Giovanni shows. This approach is not altogether new: Siepi, then Ghiaurov, and then Ramey made this interpretation a solid perfectly acceptable alternative. The "face" of the opera changes drastically - it's not a jocular, half-satirical showpiece about how a nobleman goes to hell to the delight of the plebeians anymore. Instead, the funny side of Mozart then is somewhat downplayed and his gift for drama is emphasized.

Terfel is very convincing as obsessed and often-sinister Don (now any volunteers for the role of Masetto?). Sometimes, though, he just has fun with the role, looks like it appeals to his personality. Leporello is played here by wonderful young basso Michele Pertusi who proved indispensable as a Rossini bass in recent years. His deep voice makes a nice contrast to Terfel's, particularly during their sparkling dialogues. (Btw, Terfel himself makes a fine Leporello due to his endless comical talents.)

This set boasts Sir Solti's greatest asset - Renee Fleming, possibly the finest Donna Anna on record. Her voice is powerful but never overbearing, rich and subtle at the same time. Ann Murray is a very nice Elvira, although I tend to look for striking difference between the two lead female voices (examples might be Tomowa-Sintow and Baltsa or Sutherland and Schwarzkopf". A pleasant surprise is Herbert Lippert's well-controlled elegant rendition of Don Ottavio's notoriously difficult arias (Sir Solti's support must not go unnoticed here - masterful!). Mario Luperi's Il Commendatore is powerful and haunting, his bass is very unusual and stands out strongly. Zerlina is a bit too serious, one misses the likes of Kathleen Battle, but it's not really a problem for this marvelous set.

Decca did a nice editing job on this live performance, the sound is clear and spacious, practically free of audience's "additions" that tend to ruin even the best of performances. Now there are two great DDD sets: this one and Karajan's DG studio recording. Both of them present dark-voiced Don Giovanni's, but, obviously, the two great conductors chose different ways of orchestrating. (The overture alone can illustrate what I mean here.) I wanted to hear both, the Berliners normally have a slight edge over LPO, but here I would not rush to make a choice. Samuel Ramey is somewhat more "seductively evil" if that's what you want to see, but Terfel can also be funny and he's not hesitant to experiment with his voice every now and then. Please stop comparing everything to the Giulini set, it gets old. Yes, that was a great performance, but completely different! (The sound there, by the way, is not any good). Should we just stop and settle there without allowing the younger singers to take a crack at Mozart's masterpiece? You think that's what he would want? As a matter of fact I want to hear more Aidas and more Carlos and more Figaros. The art of opera is a living art and must be appreciated as such. Also, could someone explain what is "quick and simple Mozart"? There's room for guessing here... And the Gardiner set is first, again, very different, and second, does not compare to this one. Comparing Orgonasova and Fleming? You decide. Just listen.

Bryn Terfel's Opera Arias album with James Levine gave us a taste of how his Don Giovanni would sound - he sang Don's serenade. Immediately one could see his portrayal brings to life the dark almost demonic side of the celebrated character, much different than a typical baritone Giovanni shows. This approach is not altogether new: Siepi, then Ghiaurov, and then Ramey made this interpretation a solid perfectly acceptable alternative. The "face" of the opera changes drastically - it's not a jocular, half-satirical showpiece about how a nobleman goes to hell to the delight of the plebeians anymore. Instead, the funny side of Mozart then is somewhat downplayed and his gift for drama is emphasized.

Terfel is very convincing as obsessed and often-sinister Don (now any volunteers for the role of Masetto?). Sometimes, though, he just has fun with the role, looks like it appeals to his personality. Leporello is played here by wonderful young basso Michele Pertusi who proved indispensable as a Rossini bass in recent years. His deep voice makes a nice contrast to Terfel's, particularly during their sparkling dialogues. (Btw, Terfel himself makes a fine Leporello due to his endless comical talents.)

This set boasts Sir Solti's greatest asset - Renée Fleming, possibly the finest Donna Anna on record. Her voice is powerful but never overbearing, rich and capable of subtlety at the same time. Ann Murray is a very nice Elvira, although I tend to look for striking difference between the two lead female voices (examples might be Tomowa-Sintow and Baltsa or Sutherland and Shwarzcopf. A pleasant surprise is Herbert Lippert's well- controlled elegant rendition of Don Ottavio notoriously difficult arias (Sir Solti's support must not go unnoticed here - masterful!). Mario Luperi's Il Commendatore is powerful and haunting, his bass is very unusual and stands out strongly. Zerlina is a bit too serious, one misses the likes of Kathleen Battle, but it's not really a problem for this marvelous set.

Decca did a nice editing job on this live performance, the sound is clear and spacious, practically free of audience's "additions" that tend to ruin even the best of performances. Now there are two great DDD sets: this one and Karajan's DG studio recording. Both of them present dark-voiced Don Giovanni's, but, obviously, the two great conductors chose different ways of orchestrating. (The overture alone can illustrate what I mean here.) I wanted to hear both, the Berliners normally have a slight edge over LPO, but here I would not rush to make a choice. Samuel Ramey is slightly more "seductively evil" if that's what you want to see, but Terfel can also be funny and he's not hesitant to experiment with his voice every now and then. Please stop comparing everything to the Giulini set, it gets old. Yes, that was a great performance, but completely different! (The sound there, by the way, is not any good). Should we just stop and settle there without allowing the younger singers to take a shot at Mozart's masterpiece? You think that's what he would want? As a matter of fact I want to hear more Aidas and more Turandots and more Figaros. The art of opera is a living art and must be appreciated as such. Also, could someone explain what is "quick and simple Mozart"? There's room for guessing here... And the Gardiner set is first, again, very different, focusing on period performance, and second, does not even compare to this one. Comparing Orgonasova and Fleming? You decide. Just listen.

I love Terfel and I hear that he was a great Don Giovanni on stage, but I am vexed, I am very vexed that I shelled out $50 for this lousy set ... The cover should give you an idea about the artistic quality of this recording: Terfel looks rather surly and constipated.
He sounds good, and turns in a lively Champagne Aria and a sweet La ci darem la mano, so if you don't mind paying such money for two arias, go ahead, but there are several other problems with this Don.
First of all, you may want your Don Giovanni to show some colors, but even sung in Terfel's glorious voice, this Don is a one dimensional thug. This has much to do with the atmosphere in the recording studio rather than Terfel's admirable acting chops. You also may want your Don to sound distinctively different from Leporello, and Masetto. No luck here, as demonstrated in duets. Petrusi is a good Leporello, but Terfel was a great one and he spoiled many other Leporellos for me. Don Ottavio is bland, and Commendatore is a little better, but if you have a booming voice, you have a Commendatore, and that's pretty much the case here.
The female ranks are appaling. Zerlina is just blah, that's about all I can say, but Ann Murray is absolutely the worst Donna Elvira on record, and I was astonished at sheer horror of her In quali eccessi aria, dead slow, wobbly and shrill. She swoons some of her notes so badly that you may get sea-sick. And just to add the insult to the injury, the orchestra, dragging along with her, actually sounds flat in several places.
There's also unbelievably obnoxious Renee Fleming as Donna Anna. If you like vacuous Donna Anna, with extra embellishments, sort of like Sutherland but more annoying, that's exactly what you will get here. In Non mir dir, she has this cutesy little bellow before the first "bene", hits a very labored trill at the end and then actually sloooows down just before that very final note. You can mourn a murdered father and suffer heartbreaking dilemma but there's always room for pretty singing. She floats and floats her notes, and decorates, until there's no life left in this aria, with no sense of musical line or any drama. The poor orchestra again drags along, you can practically hear them mutter under the breath "finish that floating and get on with it!"
The whole recording oozes something like boredom and feeling of stale, musty production in a small podunk town, not a star studded line up in expensive studio recording. It's just too sad that Terfel couldn't get a better record of one of his signature roles.
The finale is not that bad, Solti's heavy handed conducting works OK, hence I am giving this album two very generous stars but at this price and with this much hype you would expect the flames of hell to practically leap out of the speakers. Buy this set only if you have money to waste.

This recording of Don Giovanni is a true masterpiece. Solti brings out all the sublimity of the Overture, making the second theme into one of the most sublime moments in all of music. The opera as a whole is not pretty pure-tone Mozart. This Don Giovanni has a very dark feel to it, and it feels like that's the way it should be. I really must disagree with earlier reviewers. Terfel's expression of rage just before the entrance of the Commendatore in the second act Finale is blood-curdling. Murray and Fleming are not ideal, but are effective dramatically, if not coming off a bit old. Pertusi is excellent. Lippert does not quite have the technical mastery one would hope for in an Ottavio, but expresses his part flawlessly. The true star of this recording however is Solti. This vision of Don Giovanni is a true blessing. Solti takes the dramatic elements of the score very seriously, while not over-romanticizing. If you need to get a gauge of this performance, simply listen to the first act Finale, and you will be thrilled.

Of all the Don Giovanni's I own, this is one of the worst, running neck and neck with the weird Bonynge set (Sutherland's second and pointless recording of Donna Anna). Solti conducts with spirit and Pertusi sounds gorgeous. But I have all the Solti recordings and bought this for Terfel and Fleming. I was sorely disappointed. Terfel is incapable of creating a character. He has one of the most distinctive beautiful bass baritone voices around but Don Giovanni is seductive, dangerous, aristocratic, and more importantly COMPLICATED. Terfel sounds like a thuggy lothario, utterly lacking in finesse. Now that singing actor Rene Pape (and HIS gorgeous voice) is on the scene, Terfel should watch his back. As for Fleming, her Donna Anna is COMPLETELY WRONG. Yes, the voice is beautiful but hello, there's more to Anna than sounding pretty. Anna is self-righteous, indignant, a "victim" with steely strength. Fleming sounds pretty. That's it. Where's the sense that she has something to hide in "Don Ottavio son morta!"? Or the rage in "Or s'ai chi l'onore"? She takes the "cors" in that great aria with a crescendo when they should be taken with bite and thrust. These are not pretty notes but cries of a wronged HEART. If Anna were this weak, she couldn't convince Ottavio to do anything, let alone wait a year to marry her. The rest of the cast ranges from good (Groop) to dreadful (Murray).
The best studio recording is still the Giulini - Waechter is a wonderful Giovanni (although I prefer Siepi), Sutherland's Anna is one of her best characterizations on disc (and she sounds gorgoeous, to boot), Alva is a fabulous Don Ottavio, and then there's Schwarzkopf (enough said).
My dream modern recording: Pape as the Don; Terfel as Leporello or the Commendatore; Mattila (though I worry about the coloratura) or Harteros (in a few years) as Anna; Goerke, Flannigan, or Radvonovsky as Elivira; Juan Diego Florez as Ottavio (WOW); Isabel Bayrakdarian as Zerlina; and D'Arcangelo as Masetto. I can dream...

Not a good recording. Solti doesn't seem to have any new things to say on the greatest of all operas since his 1978 recording. The old cast had Margaret Price and Lucia Popp on the plus side, the new one only has Renee Fleming. Ann Murray is best forgotten, and Terfel is not really suited to the title role, he is a better Leporello. If you want a modern digital Don Giovanni get Sir John Eliot Gardiner's recording in ARCHIV. It has a sensational Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Luba Orgonasova and Charlotte Margiono. Rodney Gilfry is a charmer, a high baritone suits the role best. Gardiner's conducting is very exciting, and musicologically well informed.

It's annoying that Decca these days do not record full operas very frequently. There are many Renee Fleming roles that are not recorded in full. Decca likes to put out excerpts discs of Flemings roles. So we may never get her full Marschallin, Traviata (Violetta), full Capriccio, full Daphne, full Arabella, full Ariadne, full Konstanze, full Pamina ... But thankfully, we have her full Fiordiligi and here, her full Donna Anna - a spectacular assumption and the talk of every operatic town. Her characterization is superb not to mention that her voice is mesmerizingly beautiful. Bryn Terfel makes a terrific Don Giovanni and the rest of the cast are excellent. Highly recommended.

Solti in his later years developed a much better sense of conducting and musical structure, especially after he started working with more Mozart operas. What I find particularly admirable in this recording is how he brings a sense of Mozartian indulgence and forwardness in his second recording, a much greater improvement over his first Decca recording with the same orchestra. I find that the musical textures are lighter and brisker, without a sense of overpacing. Unfortunately, the orchestra is not a very good one, and string articulation tends to get messy at certain points. Solti's leadership, however, more than makes up for that.

The male soloists are very good, with a dark Bryn Terfel as Don Giovanni. Michele Pertusi is also a very good Leporello, although we could hope that the Commendatore could be as good as Kurt Moll in Solti's first recording.

The female soloists are of a different calibre though. Renee Fleming is all jazz and no classical technique as Donna Anna. It is a very slidey, scoopey performance that has been performed without taste. Murray is a mezzo, and handling Donna Elvira's high tessitura passages finds her strained most of the time. Groop is terrible as Zerlina. All in all, a disaster in the female department.

I would recommend Solti's 1978 recording over this one, or if you want an excellent "dinosaur" old school Don Giovanni (big house, big orchestra, Verdian and Wagnerian voices), go for Haitink's rendition with the Bayerischer Runkfunk Orchestra with Vanness, Maria Ewing, and Thomas Allen.

I think this Don Giovanni is excellently prepared. The prior reviewers are exaggerating everything. The overture in particular deserves special mention. Solti brings his special touch to the overture (which is alone worth the price of this recording). Then there's Renee Fleming. I think she is a superb Mozartian. Her tone is rich, full and creamy and she handles the coloratura superbly. Ravishing. Bryn Terfel is an excellent Don Giovanni. Ann Murray's Elvira is one which shows the pitiful side of her character. Unlike Scharwzkopf who highlights the furious side of Elvira, Ann Murray's highlights the "please come back to me I need you" side of Elvira. I like this alternative characterization. What's the use of buying another different version of Don Giovanni if they all sound the same? I want a different sounding Don Giovanni and I get it here. Michael Pertusi is good as Leporello. Lippert sings beautifully as Ottavio but he is not able to take Il tesoro in one long breathe.

I think Solti is not as driven here as he usually is - that is unusual considering that, of all mozart's operas, this should be the most driven. Nevertheless, it is an excellently prepared performance that should satisfy the buyer. I dislike it when reviewers blow things out of proportion.

Bryn Terfel's Opera Arias album with James Levine gave us a taste of how his Don Giovanni would sound - he sang Don's serenade. Immediately one could see his portrayal brings to life the dark almost demonic side of the celebrated character, much different than a typical baritone Giovanni shows. This approach is not altogether new: Siepi, then Ghiaurov, and then Ramey made this interpretation a solid perfectly acceptable alternative. The "face" of the opera changes drastically - it's not a jocular, half-satirical showpiece about how a nobleman goes to hell to the delight of the plebeians anymore. Instead, the funny side of Mozart then is somewhat downplayed and his gift for drama is emphasized.

Terfel is very convincing as obsessed and often-sinister Don (now any volunteers for the role of Masetto?). Sometimes, though, he just has fun with the role, looks like it appeals to his personality. Leporello is played here by wonderful young basso Michele Pertusi who proved indispensable as a Rossini bass in recent years. His deep voice makes a nice contrast to Terfel's, particularly during their sparkling dialogues. (Btw, Terfel himself makes a fine Leporello due to his endless comical talents.)

This set boasts Sir Solti's greatest asset - Renée Fleming, possibly the finest Donna Anna on record. Her voice is powerful but never overbearing, rich and capable of subtlety at the same time. Ann Murray is a very nice Elvira, although I tend to look for striking difference between the two lead female voices (examples might be Tomowa-Sintow and Baltsa or Sutherland and Shwarzcopf. A pleasant surprise is Herbert Lippert's well-controlled elegant rendition of Don Ottavio notoriously difficult arias (Sir Solti's support must not go unnoticed here - masterful!). Mario Luperi's Il Commendatore is powerful and haunting, his bass is very unusual and stands out strongly. Zerlina is a bit too serious, one misses the likes of Kathleen Battle, but it's not really a problem for this marvelous set.

Decca did a nice editing job on this live performance, the sound is clear and spacious, practically free of audience's "additions" that tend to ruin even the best of performances. Now there are two great DDD sets: this one and Karajan's DG studio recording. Both of them present dark-voiced Don Giovanni's, but, obviously, the two great conductors chose different ways of orchestrating. (The overture alone can illustrate what I mean here.) I wanted to hear both, the Berliners normally have a slight edge over LPO, but here I would not rush to make a choice. Samuel Ramey is slightly more "seductively evil" if that's what you want to see, but Terfel can also be funny and he's not hesitant to experiment with his voice every now and then. Please stop comparing everything to the Giulini set, it gets old. Yes, that was a great performance, but completely different! (The sound there, by the way, is not any good). Should we just stop and settle there without allowing the younger singers to take a shot at Mozart's masterpiece? Is that what he would want? As a matter of fact, I want to hear more Aidas and more Turandots and more Figaros. The art of opera is a living art and must be appreciated as such. Also, could someone explain what is "quick and simple Mozart"? There's room for guessing here... And the Gardiner set is first, again, very different, focusing on period performance, and second, does not even compare to this one. Comparing Orgonasova and Fleming? You decide. Just listen.