Solti’s ‘Don Giovanni’, London 1962

SOLTI CONDUCTS DON GIOVANNI

Mozart was one of Covent Garden Opera’s weaker suits during its
early years. Although his operas provide plentiful opportunities for
the ensemble, they ideally ask for a more intimate setting than the
Royal Opera House, with its large stage and 2,158-seater auditorium.
Nor had Mozart been top of David Webster’s agenda while building a
tradition based on Verdi and Wagner and English opera. His new
Musical Director Georg Solti had other ideas, inspired by working on
Toscanini’s Magic Flute in pre-war Salzburg, and after establishing a
reputation for his Mozart while in Frankfurt. So, he committed to
renew the principal pillars of the Mozart repertory with new
productions of Don Giovanni (1962 and not previously given by the
young company); Le nozze di Figaro (1963 following on from an
English-language 1949 production originally by Peter Brook); The
Magic Flute (first in German for Klemperer in 1962, later in a new
English translation in 1966 with Solti); and Così fan tutte (1968 in
Italian, its first ever Covent Garden production).

To match Solti’s big-boned Mozart, Webster chose Franco Zeffirelli,
whose Lucia, Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci and Falstaff had
entranced audiences. They were proper Italian operas, though some
critics found his Falstaff too Italian for its English setting; whereas
Giovanni, albeit an Italian language dramma giocoso, belonged to a
different tradition. Zeffirelli’s magnificent painterly designs and
elaborate costumes treated it unashamedly as grand opera with
scene changes for different locations. Both he and Solti were
criticised at the time for their ‘romantic’ approach but, as one who
experienced it several times in the theatre, I remember its powerful
impact as an example of what ‘big house’ Mozart can be. Solti in
later life became more influenced by ‘period’ practice but, even in
1962, his approach was lithe as well as weighty. He brings his
trademark energy and sensuousness to the music, but is attentive to
changes of mood and singers’ needs. The recitatives rattle along, as
was the custom in those days, but listen to the sensitivity of his
accompaniment of Sena Jurinac’s sublime singing of ‘In quali eccessi’.
And what singers? It is hard to imagine a more persuasive Elvira than
Jurinac, whose gloriously supple soprano was matched by her stage
presence. During the catalogue aria, her look of abject misery even
quelled the laughs at Geraint Evans’s antics. Nor could you ask for a
more perfect Zerlina than the young Mirella Freni. Her limpid singing
and natural delivery of the text are simply captivating, her two arias
understandably greeted by prolonged applause. At the time, they
overshadowed Leyla Gencer and Richard Lewis’s Anna and Ottavio
but, heard again, one marvels at their generous tone and poise.
Two trios for basses frame the opera: the first hushed as the
criminals watch over the dying Commendatore; the second
tumultuous as the Commendatore exacts retribution. Zeffirelli’s
statue entered downstage left, whether for dramatic reasons or
perhaps because Solti insisted on eye contact with all three singers.
In the theatre, it was overwhelming as David Ward’s thunderous
legato confronted the suave elegance of Cesare Siepi’s bass
Giovanni. Siepi, replacing the announced baritone Eberhard
Wächter, exuded confidence in his charm, a worthy antagonist. The
terror was created by Geraint Evans’s Leporello as he witnessed the
battle, using his incomparable rhythmic verve and vivid diction. Hear
how he begs ‘Dite di no’ to avert the catastrophe. For the epilogue,
Zeffirelli revealed the bucolic Watteauesque landscape of the Act 1
wedding, as Zerlina and Masetto returned to invite Leporello to join
their interrupted celebrations, a vision of restored harmony.

Nicholas Payne
25 July 2024

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)

Don Giovanni

This recording was made from a relay from the Royal Opera House on 19 February 1962.

The recording is from the Tolansky/Tschaikov Collection at Music Preserved.

Remastering by Roger Beardsley.

• Cesare Siepi
  Don Giovanni
• Geraint Evans
  Leporello
• Leyla Gencer
  Donna Anna
• Richard Lewis
  Don Ottavio
• Sena Jurinac
  Donna Elvira
• Mirella Freni
  Zerlina
• Robert Savoie
  Masetto
• David Ward
  Commendatore
• The Covent Garden Opera Chorus
  
• The Covent Garden Opera Orchestra
  
• Georg Solti
  Conductor
•