With all that said, there are a lot of documentations out there of this fabulous work, but to be quite honest... few of them leave me feeling truly satiated. All have their highpoints but few have what I really want most of the time: an all around balanced, solid performance that is cohesive from beginning to end as if tied up as a nice little package… and tempi that don't sound like the conductor is trying to get home for the 9:00 news.
There are some excellent tributes of this masterwork that I think I should acknowledge.
Everybody should know the 1954 Salzburg production conducted by Furtwängler starring:
Don Giovanni - Cesare Siepi
Leporello - Otto Edelmann
Donna Anna - Elisabeth Grümmer
Don Ottavio - Anton Dermota
Donna Elvira - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
etc...
This truly is a magnificent production. One that will go down in history as one of the legendary productions. Furtwängler is among the conductors that I hold in a very special place. He is quintessential for Wagner and a respectable Mozartean as well. Few have reached the pinnacle of true art that Furtwängler reached. However... Cesare Siepi's near perfect performance of one of his most renowned roles is just not what I'm looking for. His voice is in top form here, and I love his treatment of the music and the character, but no matter how great he is, and I ADORE Siepi, "the Don" is just not a bass role.
This isn't my personal agenda as a baritone showing through, but the Don was written for a baritone. Would I pay all of the money I have in the world to go back in time and see this production live? You bet. But do I think it is the quintessential documentation of this masterpiece... No.
It should be noted that in Mozart's manuscript, Don Giovanni is listed as Basso. HOWEVER, the ranges for singers of opera at this time, were not as extreme as they soon became. Therefore the distinction between the bass and baritone voices was not acknowledged yet. It wasn't until the operas of Heinrich Marschner that there were true baritone roles being written into operas like Der Vampyr (1828) and Hans Heiling (1833), etc. The original Don Giovanni was Luigi Bassi, who also sang Count Almaviva in the original Prague production of Le Nozze di Figaro (both before the age of 23) which was also marked for the bass voice. This alone tells us that although he was considered a "bass" he was obviously a lighter, higher bass... so… in essence a baritone.
The character description of Don Giovanni is "a young, licentious nobleman." He is a young, suave, arrogant, selfish, over-privilaged womanizer. He was raised as a nobleman so he will have manners and understanding of etiquette and a bit of sophistication. When it is sung by a bass, the role automatically takes on qualities of lechery, brutishness, and as in many productions, he becomes a symbol of evil, more than a human character. I think this has the potential to ruin the opera altogether. The 18th century Austrians would not have been attracted to such smuttiness. And from a dramatic standpoint, while we never actually see Giovanni succeed with a woman over the course of the opera, we do see the women continually fall under the spell of his charms. Zerlina does in "La ci darem la mano," we can hear it in the musical interludes. Even after the commotion of the act I finale, act II opens with Elvira obviously still entirely enamored with him, and she continues to give him more and more chances to "make it right." When Giovanni is played by a bass, the gruff darkness of the voice in no way hides the darkness that lies within this young man. It makes the whole thing that much more unbelievable to me.
Of the newer performances, I like Simon Keenlyside and Bryn Terfel as Giovanni and Leporello, but Abbado's performance is a bit lackluster for my tastes, and nothing about the recording really jumps out at me as exceptional.
Sir John Eliot Gardiner does a wonderful job with the Monteverdi orchestra, and doesn't take the ungodly fast tempi that we are used to hearing in Mozart by most modern conductors. They use period instruments and style and it is very fresh. Rod Gilfry sings and acts the best current day Giovanni's in my opinion with sensual pianos in the seduction scenes and heroic fortes in the scenes with the Commendatore, and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo is a great (if very serious) Leporello. And the rest of the cast is also excellent. I love this recording, hands down, my favourite contemporary recording. But there is still some unspoken quality that it is missing for me.
The recording I always come back to MAY surprise some who know me. It is NOT the 1966 recording with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau conducted by Karl Böhm (which is excellent in many ways, but Birgit Nilsson as Donn'Anna… please. Stick to Brünnhilde). MY recording is EMI's 1959 set conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.
Don Giovanni - Eberhard Wächter
Leporello - Giuseppe Taddei
Donna Anna - Joan Sutherland
Don Ottavio - Luigi Alva
Donna Elvira - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Zerlina - Graziella Sciutti
Masetto - Piero Cappuccilli
Il Commendatore - Gottlob Frick
Above all, I like that the voices here (known and less known) are not too heavy. (Frick excluded, but his role lends itself to that colouring)
Eberhard Wächter proves a very dashing and virile Don. This Viennese baritone has all the charm and chrisma one could want from a young nobleman and seems sincere in his lust and in his insincerities. While his character COULD use a bit more unique personality, with perhaps more subtle dramatic shading, letting us inside the 3 dimensional character a little more, with his warm and easy tone he really fits the bill for me in almost every way (one can also here him in a live recording from the Wiener Staatsoper conducted by Karajan with Walter Berry as Leporello, Leontyne Price as Donn'Anna and Wunderlich as Ottavio).
His hapless valet is seen here by the Italian Verdi baritone Giuseppe Taddei. With a tone, dark and heavy enough to balance Wächter but not so much that it challanges Frick's as the powerful and aging Commendatore. He keeps his feelings toward his master on a lighter note. Along the lines of frustration and agitation, more than the deep, inbred hatred that is so popular among stage directors today. I think at some level, Leporello likes his master despite his many flaws. In the final scene, as he shouts "dite di no, dite di no!" that his master should refuse the statue's offer to dinner that will be his inevitable obliteration, we get the feeling that he truly does want Giovanni to live another day. But through it all, Taddei seems to be always having a good time. That's nice to hear as a listener.
The very young Joan Sutherland shines here in the role of Donna Anna. She plays a seemingly helpless, vulnerable and grieving girl that is much too often played and sung in a way that one might confuse her with the 10th Valkyrie. Even so, she gives Anna the strength and power she needs as she ultimately controls all the action around her. She sings here with a tone of pure opulence from top to bottom, only eight years after her stage debut (1951). In the mask trio of the first finale, she floats up to the high B-flat, and descends with the utmost elegance and grace. I defy you to find me a recording of the trio that sounds this good, not to mention her two arias.
To counter that, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf shows her true colours here in the role of Donna Elvira, one of the 4 roles she did up until the day of her retirement. Her color, her tone, her style, all lends itself perfectly to this role. Her sudden shifts into her chest voice in her opening aria let the audience know instantaneously that this is NOT a woman to be messed with. Even without singing this Mozart heroine like Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana - Mascagni), we can tell that this fiery soprano is out for blood. On the other side of this bi-polar character, the honesty and vulnerability that she gives to the mask trio and the act II trio is something that is often attempted, but rarely achieved. Her panicked singing in the act II finale lets us HEAR just how high the stakes are for this rejected woman.
Gottlob Frick is just as home here as in his own Wagnerian repertoire and the young Piero Cappuccilli shows us his simpler, lighter side as the peasant, Masetto.
And isn't it nice to have a Zerlina in Graziella Sciutti with a simple tone that actually passes for a young, naive girl that has fallen under the spell of our suave Don??? Sciutti is the perfect Soubrette to show us how complex this character truly is. She never tries to pass it off as "just the ingénue", even though she develops a fascination with this Don Giovanni, she never allows herself to get carried away… always staying in control and using her assets to get what she wants. Even though Sciutti isn't the calibre of SINGER, we are used to hearing these days, her acting, and vocal shading is near ideal.
Lastly, Luigi Alva soars over the top of these orchestrations with a Bel Canto that harkens back to an older idea of what singing is all about. Even though his coloratura in "Il mio tesoro" isn't as clean as one might desire… I still enjoy his simple, beautiful approach to the singing.
The voices that colour this production are without a doubt exceptional, but the element that ties this up in such a nice package is the person who is, perhaps most essential and most often forgotten in our "age of the stage director."
The conductor.
Carlo Maria Giulini is in his element here with the Philharmonia Orchestra in its golden years. He keeps the music simple and elegant, letting all the fabulous dramatic elements in Mozart's score come through without any probing or cajoling. He works with the singers in a nice, tight, synergy that functions smoothly, like a well-oiled machine.
Anyone looking for a new or first recording of Don Giovanni should look into this set. It is the most balanced and well-rounded portrait of this fantastic work that one can find. After hearing this, one can take a gander at all the other wonderful, slightly less-perfect examples.
-Christopher Michael Kelley
The voices that colour this production are without a doubt exceptional, but the element that ties this up in such a nice package is the person who is, perhaps most essential and most often forgotten in our "age of the stage director."
The conductor.
Carlo Maria Giulini is in his element here with the Philharmonia Orchestra in its golden years. He keeps the music simple and elegant, letting all the fabulous dramatic elements in Mozart's score come through without any probing or cajoling. He works with the singers in a nice, tight, synergy that functions smoothly, like a well-oiled machine.
Anyone looking for a new or first recording of Don Giovanni should look into this set. It is the most balanced and well-rounded portrait of this fantastic work that one can find. After hearing this, one can take a gander at all the other wonderful, slightly less-perfect examples.
-Christopher Michael Kelley
