Coming Soon,
Barenboim's La Scala Don Giovanni on DVD and Blu-ray
We hear that Deutsche Grammophon are about to release a starrily-cast new Don Giovanni on DVD and Blu-ray, featuring many leading exponents of their roles captured live on the opening night of the La Scala 2011/12 season, with Daniel Barenboim in the pit.
The production features Swedish baritone Peter Mattei in the title-role, Anna Netrebko as Donna Anna (one of her breakthrough roles, which she’s now been singing for over a decade), Bryn Terfel as a Leporello who emerges from among the stage-hands after the overture, Barbara Frittoli as a vocally and visually glamorous Donna Elvira, and the stylish young German soprano Anna Prohaska (recently a marvellous Blonde on Yannick Nézet-Séguin's recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Deutsche Grammophon) as Zerlina.
With classy contemporary costuming by German designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Robert Carsen’s lavish new production blurs the boundaries between stage and amphitheatre, making imaginative use of mirrors and eschewing many of the pop- and drug-culture clichés which have grown up around this opera in recent years: reviewing the live performance, The New York Times described it ‘a refreshing departure from grim productions depicting Don Giovanni as a serial rapist…an elaborate construct in which La Scala itself plays an essential part’. No spoilers from me, but the final coup de theatre may well make you consider the opera and its hero in a new light…
You can watch a short video trailer here.
Related recordings
Barenboim's 1991 studio recording with the Berliner Philharmoniker has the formidable triumvirate of Ferruccio Furlanetto as Don Giovanni, John Tomlinson as Leporello and Matti Salminen as The Commendatore, with Lella Cuberli, Waltraud Meier and Joan Rodgers as the women.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Bryn Terfel has sung three of the four low-voice roles in the opera in the course of his career, and on this 1996 recording (now only available as a download) under Sir Georg Solti he appears in the title-role: 'a splendidly sturdy, virile reading, large in scale, and done with enormous vitality' (Gramophone). Cast also includes Renee Fleming as Donna Anna, Ann Murray as Donna Elvira and Michele Pertusi as Leporello.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
The following year Terfel was Leporello on Claudio Abbado's studio recording with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (now only available as a download), and Simon Keenlyside as his master, Carmelo Remigio as Anna, Soile Isokoski as Elvira, and Matti Salminen as The Commendatore; the recording was the late Michael Kennedy's Disc of the Year in The Telegraph, where he singled out 'Terfel's lusty and mockingly servile Leporello'.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Katherine Cooper - Head of Editorial
