Mozart - Don Giovanni / Furtwangler
by Alfred Travers, Paul Czinner

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DVD Reviews of Mozart - Don Giovanni / Furtwangler

DVD Review: Stunning print, peerless Siepi in the title role
Summary: 5 Stars

Much better is the young Walter Berry as Masetto, masculine and firm in tone; and Anton Dermota as Ottavio, not ideally fluent but sweet in voice and certainly one of the best tenors in the role to be had at the time.

Elisabeth Grümmer is a spontaneous, emotionally appealing Donna Anna. Grümmer had the ability to project a very feminine sincerity, and her singing and acting always had a from-the-heart manner which made her an outstanding artist and personality. Her singing is admirably precise, the tone steady and which peals forth with shining clarity, with its unique timbral "tear".

That leaves Siepi, perhaps the most memorable and natural Don Giovanni of the last 50 years. He has everything for the role: elegant dash, rakish charm, dark, romantic matinee-idol looks, athletic physique, a careless savoir-faire, and not least, a golden, suavely beautiful tone. Siepi has a way of moulding a line which can depict an ardent kind of romanticism and elegance that befits the character; he sees Giovanni as a hedonistic charmer who has a fatal lack of concern for the feelings of others. Of course, when his irresponsible behavior finally catches up with him and Hell beckons, Siepi has no trouble whatsoever in conveying Giovanni's fright as he's being dragged down to the subterranean depths of Devil Land. Siepi is frighteningly intense here, and really does sound like a man scared out of his wits. It's a eerie, effective sequence.

How fortunate that Siepi was caught in a role which he practically owned during his career, and which was a hard act to follow - which this release certainly proves.

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