Don Giovanni [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

The basso buffo role of Don Giovanni's servant, Leporello fits Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto as closely as a pair of his master's discarded unmentionables. He is by turn angrily aware of his inferior position (a sort of embryonic Figaro), slavishly obedient (suspiciously so), lecherous, or primly lecturing his master, for whom he seems to harbor a real fondness. I understand that Furlanetto and Ramey alternated the roles of master and servant, but I have trouble imagining the former as a Giovanni. He's such a perfect Leporello.

According to Peter Conrad, Don Giovanni is an archetype, not entirely human, and the singer must display his own personality while inhabiting the role. If so, Sam Ramey is a pantherish, mercurial, but ultimately friendly lover. When the festivities in the ballroom are in full swing and he drags Zerlina off to ravish her, it's as though he were only teasing. What he really means to do is dunk her in the fountain or throw her slipper over the wall.

Ruggero Raimondi was a joyless, scowling satyr in Joseph Losey's movie of the opera. Most of the dons I've seen on stage at the Michigan Opera Theatre were ribald Errol Flynn types who mounted a servant girl or two just before the Stone Guest rumbled onto them (Dang it, the Don is supposed to be eating dinner in this scene, not rutting like a boar, although we know he does that, too!). However Ramey's Giovanni is elegant, beautifully sung, and somehow very American.

The thankless role of Don Ottavio is sung by the Swedish tenor Gösta Winbergh, who studied structural engineering and played in a rock band, before pursuing his operatic career. I was sorry to hear of his unexpected death last year, because he is the perfect foil for the slightly hysterical Donna Anna of this performance--noble, kind, and stodgy. He propels his fiancé around the stage as though she were a sleepwalker.

Julia Varady sings a thoroughly intelligent, elegant Donna Elvira who is desperately in love with the Don, even when she sings about killing him. I've heard this character described as an hysteric and have seen her played as a slut, but Varady's performance is light years beyond either of these characterizations. She is a real, anguished woman.

Swiss bass-baritone, Alexander Malta is a dignified Masetto (I hate to see him played as a clownish simpleton) who seems older than his new bride and cynical about her motives for hanging around with the Don. Malta is a big teddy bear of a guy and you wonder how Zerlina could ever have been tempted by the false glamour of her aristocratic would-be seducer.

Kathleen Battle's lyric soprano voice and her beautiful stage presence made me wonder if her character (Zerlina) were marrying beneath herself. She seemed slightly self-conscious (and over-dressed) to be playing the role of a peasant. The Don is dead-on about her in their initial scene together.

Karajan's tempi were somewhat funereal, especially in the overture, but overall this is a world-class performance by the old maestro, fully worthy of being conducted in the city of Mozart.

P.S. Raimondi's Don is out on DVD, too, but I'd buy this one first.

Von Karajan conducts a superb orchesteral performance that is somewhat on the spacious side, but which in no way drags. He definitely captures the humor of the score, especially the Leporello scenes. The sound quality of the DVD is excellent, comparable to a good set of CDs, with very nice balance between the voices and the orchestra. Eveything on the DVD is very clearly recorded and von Karajan really brings out the details in the score. There is, on the downside, a modest amount of stage noise.

The DVD has very ample tracking and comes with subtitles and good program notes. It is definitely a very good Don Giovanni to have.