Patrick Bade
Don Giovanni, Part 1

Patrick Bade - Don Giovanni, Part 1

- Thanks, Wendy! Well, “Don Giovanni” is, a production of Don Giovanni is a kind of litmus test for the health of any opera company anywhere in the world. It’s such a demanding opera. It really puts any company through its paces and tests every aspect of an operatic ensemble. So, first of all, of course, you want a great conductor. And ever since Mahler, at the beginning of the 20th century, every great conductor, Furtwangler, Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Karajan, if you think he’s great, Kurt, Bohm, all those people they’ve always used “Don Giovanni,” really, as a flagship to demonstrate their skills. It also requires, it’s an expensive opera to put on because it requires eight world-classed singers. You’ve got to have, you need three sopranos, three baritone soloists, a bass, and a tenor with virtuoso skills. And also, it’s a huge challenge to directors and to designers, partly because it is done so often. And so every director, every designer feels what can they do that’s original? How can they put their mark on this great masterpiece? So this, well, here you can see the full company with all the, well with seven of the eight soloists. And there are different ways of doing it. You can do it big or you can do it small. This is a very lavish set. This is how it was done in Paris in the mid-19th century. This is how it looked in the very famous production that Mahler put on in Vienna, designed by Alfred Roller. Here is a 1920s rather avant garde, modernist production from Frankfurt with very kind of cubist, deco looking costumes. This, as I said, every director wants to put their mark on it and this can be dangerous.

Certainly in recent years, there have been repeated “Don Giovanni” scandals. This is a production of 1995 by Marina Warner that was at the Glyndebourne. And as it happened, I spent that whole summer at Glyndebourne because I was staying with conductor Franz Welser-Most and he was conducting Peter Graham. So we went into the opera house every day. I went with him. And he would pick up his mail from a pigeon, you know, one of those box things with little boxes. And he’d pull out W. And of course Marina Warner is W. So every day he pulled out this incredible hate mail and abusive mail she got because of this production. And the controversy there was, the thing that people got really aerated about was that Don Giovanni spent a lot of the opera dragging around a kind of sex doll of the Virgin Mary. My particular problem with that production was that Marina Warner presented Don Giovanni as a kind of completely unsexy slob nerd. And that’s the one thing you really can’t do with Don Giovanni. He’s got to be, he’s got to have sex appeal. He can be as nasty as you want him to be, but if he doesn’t have charisma and sex appeal, what are all these women doing falling over and being seduced by him? This is another very notorious production at the English National Opera around the same time, mid-1990s, and I saw this one too. I happened to be given a seat in the front row, right in the middle of this front row for this by some people who bought tickets. And when they read the reviews, they were so horrified that they gave them away. And this is by the notorious Catalan director, Calixto Bieito. And I must admit, I, well mainly because I had very low expectations after reading the reviews, I was actually really quite impressed by it.

But it was incredibly nasty. Every person in it was depicted as being vile and gross and motivated by the basest of human instincts. And this is the opening scene where the curtain goes up on Donna Anna and Don Giovanni having wild sex on top of a car. And there is Leporello on the left-hand side. And certainly Bieito got a cheap laugh from the audience ‘cause it was in English at the English National Opera. And so Leporello sings, “I think I hear someone coming” just at the point when Don Giovanni and Donna Anna are having a very noisy orgasm. And so having seen more productions by Bieito, I realise they’re always saying the same thing, which is that humanity stinks and people are revolting and gross and motivated by very base things. And you can just about get away with that with “Don Giovanni,” although not sure. But certainly when you’ve seen more than one production and it’s always the same thing. And I was really outraged by reports of his production of the “Abduction from the Seraglio” in Berlin. And my great friend Dorrit in New York, after my last lecture, she emailed me about this. She saw it and said how absolutely gross it was, with Konstanze, you can see at the top in a cage being turned into a sex slave. So you think is it really, really necessary? This was the last production I saw, which is still a current one, although it’s now 10 years old, at Glyndebourne by Jonathan Kenton. And as you can see, it’s not conventional.

It’s a modern production. But it seemed to me to be a very intelligent one and not one where the director is screaming, “Me, me, me! I want all the attention on me!” It was actually quite a thoughtful treatment of Mozart and Da Ponte. And I talked at some length about Lorenzo Da Ponte, his very extraordinary life. He lived to be nearly 90. It was a very adventurous life. And he did all sorts of different things. So his association with Mozart was just a very brief episode in his career, but that is of course his immortality. Without that, I think he’d barely be a footnote in either history or musical history. He was churning out these opera libretti. I’ve read different estimates that some say he wrote over 40 of them in a very short period. But basically, he was a chancer and he was a hack. I mean, he almost never came up with anything really original. He was thieving from other writers. Even “Don Giovanni” is 60% lifted, just directly lifted from other libretti that he’d come across. Nevertheless, he gave Mozart what he needed. And if Da Ponte himself wasn’t a genius, he was certainly an enabler of genius. And so we must be extremely grateful to him. He describes in his memoirs, he wrote the, he “wrote,” you could say pasted together. It was a cut and paste job. The libretto of “Don Giovanni” in the space of a few days when he was also working on two other libretti. And he managed to do this fueled with snuff and Tocai and having repeated sex, appropriate enough considering subject of this opera, with the 16-year-old daughter of a neighbour who he’d managed to seduce. “Don Giovanni” was commissioned by the opera in Prague. This is the Estates Opera.

It’d only just been opened in 1784. So it’s a brand new opera house in the new neoclassical style. So it’s a very different style from the rococo Cuvillies Theatre where Mozart had presented “Idomeneo.” Now when “The Marriage of Figaro,” the first of the three Da Ponte-Mozart operas was presented in Vienna, it was a moderate success, but not a great success. But it was a huge success in Prague. They absolutely loved it in Prague. And so they immediately commissioned another opera from Mozart and Da Ponte in the summer of 1787. And it was actually first performed in October. So you think, “Oh my God! This great complex masterpiece was conceived, composed, completed, rehearsed in a matter of a couple of months!” And we know that Mozart was still actually composing the great overture the night before the premiere. So god knows what it sounded like. There would’ve been handwritten parts that were handed out to the different members of the orchestra. Now as you can see, the Estates Theatre is small by the standards of modern theatres. It’s actually, you can get a thousand people into it at a squeeze. So it’s actually a bit smaller than the Glyndebourne Theatre.

And the orchestra was, was tiny. There were six violins and two violas, violas. I mean at Covent Garden, it’s 40 violins and 12 violas in a normal, modern opera orchestra. So it would’ve been, in some ways, more like a sort of a chamber performance. But that’s one of the things I’d like to say about “Don Giovanni” is that it works whatever. You can do it monumentally on a huge scale. I had a nice message from from Herbert Hess saying, alerting me to a performance of “The Marriage of Figaro” that’s coming up at The Met. But as I said to him, to me, “The Marriage of Figaro” is completely lost in the vast size of The Met whereas “Don Giovanni” can work very well on a big scale. Here’s another view of this exquisite neoclassical theatre. So the plot, it is about a depraved aristocrat who seduces hundreds, indeed thousands of women. And it, and eventually the devil, well, he goes down to hell. It goes back to a 17th century Spanish play by a writer called Tirso de Molina. And you can, this is a poster for the, for which- It’s not the first performance 'cause it’s 1788, but an early performance, where you can see it’s described as a gross Singspiel. In the first publication on the title page, It’s described as a dramma giocoso, a comedy drama really. And that’s perhaps the next important thing to say about this opera. In an almost Shakespearean way, it combines comedy with high drama and even tragedy. And you switch backwards and forwards between the two.

And you hear that straightaway in the overture. I know I played this to you the other day, but I’d like to play it to you again. This incredible thunderous opening in the key of D minor, with these huge, massive, terrifying chords. And then like the switch of a, you know, a light switch being switched on or off, we’re suddenly into a very different mood, a rather, not exactly jolly, but a lighthearted mood of amorous intrigue. Not so sure what’s happening here. Coming I think. So the curtain rises to find Leporello, Don Giovanni’s servant. He’s pacing up and down, complaining about his life as a servant constantly waiting outside houses while Don Giovanni does his dirty business. Don Giovanni, right there, there is in the house of the Commendatore and he’s trying either to seduce or to rape the Commendatore’s daughter, Donna Anna. So this, it starts off in a very jolly mood. We’re in a comic opera with Leporello. And then there’s one of these switches. Suddenly it turns very, very dramatic, very exciting as Don Giovanni tries to escape with Donna Anna chasing after him because she wants him to bring him to justice. She’s a fantastic sort of me too character. She is not going to let him get away with it. So we have a very intense dramatic duet between those two.

• Her father hears the noise and he rushes out to protect her and he fights a very brief duel with Don Giovanni and he’s mortally wounded. So I’m going to play you the end of this fight. And then we had another one of those dramatic changes of mood. And we have a trio, but for three dark voices 'cause we’ve got the two baritones, Don Giovanni and Leporello, and the bass of the Commendatore. And it’s a wonderful moment, one of those moments of pause where people are thinking about the situation. I played you one last time at the end of “The Marriage of Figaro,” when the Countess steps out and exposes her husband. There’s this, a moment of calm and pause. And it’s like that here with these three dark voices. And then we hear the Commendatore saying that, you know, he’s dying. He uses the word “palpitante.” And we hear the palpitations in the orchestra and we hear the literally the ebbing away of his soul in the music.

• Then we have again a change of key and a change of mood. And we have a conversation between Don Giovanni and his servant Leporello in the form of a recitative. Recitative is just some dialogue accompanied usually just by a keyboard instrument. And it can be a harpsichord. It can be an early form of piano. And so I’d just like to say something about this use of recitative in these Mozart operas. They used to be, these recitatives used to be considered a real problem and an impediment to the enjoyment of the operas. I imagine that many of you of my age and older will have grown up with “Kobbe’s Complete Opera Book.” It was the household book around the world, I suppose, at least in the English-speaking world, introducing people to opera. And it was first published in the early 20th century. And there were new editions, updated editions, through the 20th century. One of the early editions says, “Oh, Mozart operas are full of such wonderful music. It’s such a pity about those wretched recitatives because that Mozart will cease to be performed sooner or later unless somebody gets round, some new composer gets round to recomposing these recitatives.” I think the problem was that they were difficult for audiences to follow. But they’re actually very difficult for non-Italian singers to perform. Recitatives are always much better when you can have somebody singing them in their native language so that they flow more easily.

But I think two things have really changed people’s attitudes to these recitatives. One is that these days, singers, there are language coaches in every opera house in the world. And although it’s debatable whether singers sing better or worse than in the past, I think one has to say that linguistic skills, if not annunciation, but at least pronunciation, have greatly increased in recent decades. And the other big, big factor of course is surtitles, which you now get in almost every opera house. So people actually can follow what is being said in these recitatives. So I’m going to play you a bit of the recitative that comes immediately after the death of the Commendatore. We’re going to hear it first of all with a famous, historic, Italian “Don Giovanni.” This is Mariano Stabile. 'Cause he has a wonderfully natural way with the language. It all just comes out in the right kind of conversational turn.

• Now we’re going to hear it again in German. And I mentioned last time that in the Nazi period, of course, all of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas were done not only in German translation, but in a new translation produced by an inverted commas “Aryan translator,” as the familiar one was in a translation by a German Jew. But this is how it sounds. That same passage sung in German. And I thought it might amuse you also to hear the same passage once again, this time in Arabic.

• If anybody has access to it in either Hebrew or Yiddish, let me know. I’d love to hear it! Right, now, Don Giovanni`of course, he is the central character, even though it is an ensemble opera. Everybody needs to be good. But if you don’t have a really convincing Don Giovanni, the whole, it’s a pointless exercise. It’s a role that’s written either, it can be sung either by a baritone, and even quite a light baritone, or it can be sung by what’s called a basso cantante. You don’t want one of those heavy, woofy basses, but a bass who can sing smoothly could be a very convincing Don Giovanni. It’s not actually that difficult a role to sing. A lot of singers can sing it. The tessitura is a comfortable one. It doesn’t go very high. It doesn’t go that low. But what you do need is charisma and sex appeal. This was, this man, these are portraits by the German artist Max Slevogt of the Portuguese baritone Francesco D'Andrade. He was the Don Giovanni of the second half of the 19th century. Very, very famous in the role. And a very handsome man, ladies fell in love with him. I actually have an autographed photograph of him that was given to the Baroness Von Stauffenberg, the aunt of the man who put the bomb under Hitler. And it was in Stuttgart. And she dropped her glove onto the stage with a message inside asking him to come and see her. And he sent this photograph to her. And it’s “Madame la Baron de Stauffenberg” and then in brackets, “tres volontiers,” very, very gladly.

That was actually given to me by the daughter-in-law of the Baroness von Stauffenberg. Anyway, here this is Battistini, the most famous baritone, at the end, Italian baritone, at the end of the 19th century. Two other famous early 20th century Don Giovannis who were considered to be hot shit and sexy. This is Maurice Renaud on the left-hand side. And it’s Antonio Scotti on the right-hand side, The Don Giovanni of the interwar period, of course was Ezio Pinza, and we’ll hear him later. Beautiful, smooth, deep bass voice. And he, he’s another who actually really didn’t have to act the part. He was Don Giovanni for better or worse. And he regularly attempted to seduce all the singers he sang with, sometimes successfully, as in the case of Elisabeth Rethberg, on the left-hand side, and sometimes unsuccessfully. I just think he felt he had to go through the motions with a beautiful Czech soprano, Jarmila Novotna, who you see on the right-hand side. She said she always used to cross her hands over her chest to protect herself when she was in the same room with him. And then the great Don Giovanni of the post-war period. I did actually catch him towards the end of his career and he was wonderful. This is the Italian Cesare Siepi, another very beautiful, smooth bass voice, basso cantante. And he was famous for his fabulous legs. These in the days, of course, where Don Giovannis used to wear tights. So, you know, you needed a singer who could, had good legs, who could look good in tights. Tights are rather out of fashion these days. It’s a long time since I’ve seen a Don Giovanni wearing tights. But instead in recent years, the focus has shifted from his legs to his chest. So a lot of recent Don Giovannis have been asked to strip off to the waist.

And that’s the Polish, the baritone Mariusz Kwiecien on the left-hand side and the South America baritone Erwin Schrott on the right-hand side. He’s another one of course who didn’t really need to act the part. And when he sang it, oh, it must be what, 12, 15 years ago, at Covent Garden, everybody, you know, all the ladies in the audience really thrilled when he took his shirt off 'cause he did look terrific. And he obviously thrilled his Donna Anna, Anna Netrebko because she actually got pregnant by him during the performances. Now the next character we’re going to encounter is Donna Elvira. We first meet her wandering the streets of Seville. She’s desperately searching for Don Giovanni. He has seduced her and she has fallen hopelessly, desperately, obsessively in love with him. And in a way you could say she’s a kind of stalker. She’s stalking him. And it’s a difficult role. In some ways it’s a slightly thankless role. You sort of feel that Mozart and that Da Ponte don’t take her that seriously. She’s slightly a figure of fun. But it’s a very, very difficult role to sing. It needs a singer of considerable virtuosity. Here are two very famous Donna Elviras from the post-war period. It’s Lisa Della Casa, a Swiss Soprano on the left, And Elisabeth Schwarzkopf on the right. There were great rivals and they alternated in the role, both at Salzburg and at The Met in New York. So as I said, we find her, first of all, desperately searching for her lover and complaining about her fate. In this, she’s veiled. So Don Giovanni comes. He sees her in the street. Doesn’t actually immediately recognise this as a woman he’s had already. So of course, once he’s had a woman, he’s not really interested in her anymore. So she is lamenting and he comes up behind her, you know, with an attempt to “comfort” in inverted commas, but really to seduce her before he realises who she is.

• So, as soon as he realises who she is, she lifts her veil and he sees who she is, Don Giovanni beats a retreat and he leaves her in the hands of his servant Leporello to explain the situation. Leporello is also a baritone role. And actually the tessitura and the vocal demands are interchangeable with those of Don Giovanni. And there have been singers like Bryn Terfel, who sang both roles and recorded both roles. And the central image here is of the Italian baritone Giuseppe Taddei, who recorded both roles. But usually it’s a question of appearance, physique, temperament. So I would say that Bryn Terfel is- God made Bryn Terfel to sing Leporello, not Don Giovanni. He’s a better Leporello than he is a Don Giovanni. And it was the other way around with Giuseppe Taddei, who had a kind of a nobility and a smoothness that is more Don Giovanni than it is Leporello. Here are two singers where there was never any doubt which role they would have to sing. And it’s Salvatore Baccaloni. He was the Leporello of the interwar period. Here he is at Glyndebourne on the right-hand side of the left photograph. And the wonderful Welsh baritone, I heard him many times in the role. He was really terrific in the role. That’s Geraint Evans who was, of course, he was too short to actually sing Don Giovanni. It would’ve looked ludicrous with the sopranos towering over him. And he had a wonderful kind of earthy humour that was absolutely perfect for the role. But here we’re going to hear Baccaloni singing the famous catalogue aria where he’s kept a catalogue of all Don Giovanni’s conquests all around the world. That, as you can see, it’s 640 in Italy, and a hundred in Germany, 90 in Turkey, and 1,003 in Spain. And you want a nice juicy, fruity tone. And you want somebody who can really point the humour.

• The third female character that we meet is Zerlina. And so this is a role for a soubrette. That’s a light lyric soprano. She’s got to suggest youthfulness. She’s a very young girl, both in her appearance and in her type of voice. Actually, what you often find with these Mozart operas, if you have a great soprano in the Mozart repertory that she might start off singing Zerlina. And then a few years later she’ll move on to Donna Elvira. And then when she’s at her full maturity, she might land up singing Donna Anna. So there have been, rather as with “Der Rosenkavalier,” there have been singers who sung all three roles at various points in their career. And so we meet her just as she is about to be seduced by Don Giovanni. He’s not worried about whether women are from the aristocracy or from, she’s a- Zerlina is a girl of the people. And there’s this very, very famous duet, which is so often done in concert, and quite easy to sing so amateurs very often sing it, in which Don Giovanni is trying to seduce Zerlina. And she’s quite flirtatious and she can’t really make up her mind whether she wants to be seduced by him or not.

• So it’s a bit of an Epstein situation. I’m sure it’s only so long before somebody decides to do a version of “Don Giovanni” making that point. But just as he’s about to get his evil way with her, in sweeps Donna Elvira like an avenging angel to warn the girl and to rescue her. And she sweeps her off. Then in the next scene, we have Donna Anna and Don Ottavio, who come in 'cause they- she wants vengeance on her father’s killer. She doesn’t know that it’s Don Giovanni who it was, 'cause he was masked of course. So she couldn’t recognise him. So she and Don Ottavio come to Don Giovanni to ask for his help. And at this point, Elvira comes in again thinking that Don Giovanni is now trying to seduce Donna Anna. And this develops into an interesting situation with Donna Elvira desperately trying to warn Donna Anna and becoming increasingly hysterical. And Don Giovanni, I suppose the term these days for what he’s doing is gaslighting. I only really learned the meaning of this word a couple of weeks ago. But this would be a good definition, I think, of what gaslighting is. That he’s pretending to be concerned for Donna Elvira and telling the others sotto voce, “Oh dear, poor woman,” you know. “She’s mad. She’s completely hysterical.” And she, of course, gets more and more worked up. And this is wonderfully conveyed in the vocal line that Mozart has conferred. It becomes more and more agitated, more spiky, as her agitation and hysteria builds up. But certainly Anna and Ottavio are not taken in. They’re more impressed with Elvira than they are with Don Giovanni.

• So Don Giovanni departs, as does Elvira, and Anna and Ottavio are left behind. And at this moment, there’s another dramatic change of music because the penny drops and Anna suddenly realises, yes, it’s Don Giovanni. That was the man who tried to rape me! That’s the man who murdered her father! And she launches into her terrific vengeance aria calling for vengeance against Don Giovanni. So Anna is the heaviest and most dramatic of the three soprano roles. And if you have a big house, a big theatre, and a big orchestra, you want a big voiced Anna, you really want a Brunhilda or an Isolde voice. And so I’m going to play you. Oh here, Joan Sutherland, very famous in the role. Of course, she had a very big voice, and a very flexible voice. And the recording with her under Giulini is always very highly praised. Another recording, if you don’t mind historic sound, I really recommend is the live performance from Salzburg around about 1950, with the very, very exciting Ljuba Welitsch, terrific temperamental singer, Bulgarian singer, on the right-hand side. Another asset of that performance, of course, is that you get Tito Gobbi as a very interesting Don Giovanni. But I’m going to play you my own favourite recording of this aria, which is with the great Wagnerian soprano, Frida Leider, wonderful sound, bright, slightly metallic, very concentrated, exciting sound.

• So Don Ottavio tries to soothe her and comfort her. And at this point, we might get one of two different arias written for him. In Prague, the original version, there is just one aria for Don Ottavio, and it was written for an Italian tenor called Antonio Baglioni, who had fantastic breath control and a very flexible technique. So he could do these endless runs without pausing for breath. Well, hardly any tenors in the 20th century could do this. They all had to break up the lines. This is a score which I have in my house in London that belonged to the tenor Alfred Piccaver, who was very famous in the role of Don Ottavio in Vienna in the 1920s. And you can see these long runs. And every now and then you can see what looks like a V in the run. And that’s where he’s marked this. So I can see three of them here. And so that’s obviously, he just could not get through those runs without pausing. So he’s put the Vs so he can insert a little moment where he can take a breath to help him get to the end of the line. Certainly until recently there was only one recording where all these long runs were sung in one breath. And that was an early 20th century recording made by the Irish tenor, John McCormack. I think there are tenors recently who have recorded it without taking breaks. But I don’t think any of them quite match McCormack for the sheer poise of his singing. He makes it all sound so easy.

• Well I hope you weren’t trying to hold your breath while listening to that final run. Otherwise you’d probably be on the floor. Now when the opera was put on in Vienna shortly afterwards, the tenor took one look at that and probably fainted. And Mozart had to write another aria for him. So I have, there are some recordings or some productions where you just get one of the arias. But really usually you get both 'cause you want them. 'Cause the other one may be vocally simpler, but it’s so beautiful. In fact, I think I prefer it to the one we’ve just heard. And I want to end tonight on a real high with the one, with my hero, the wonderful Richard Tauber, making absolute magic out of this aria. And you think, “Wow!” I mean usually Don Ottavio is a bit of a stick. But when the role is sung like this, you think, “Hmm, Don Giovanni might have had a rival.”

• Now I think I’m going to have to stop now 'cause I see there are lots of questions.

Q&A and Comments:

Q: And question from last week, “Who designed the set with the Spinx?”

A: That was Shinkel, great neoclassical architect. Shinkel, S-H-I-N-K-E-L.

“Bieito completely ruined "Fidelio” at the ENO.“ I’m not surprised. I think once you- he’s, as far as I’m concerned anyway, he’s a one-trick pony. It’s always the same for every opera that he designs.

"This is Mira. "Don Giovanni” was performed in Israel with the IPO conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini in full. I was a teenager. Went to every performance.“ Must have been fantastic! Giulini, of course a very, very famous conductor. And there are both, there’s a commercial recording and there are live recordings with Giulini if you want to follow that up.

"This is Sandy Landau. Saw Cosi in Prague. The whole set’s got in white, quite gorgeous.” I hope it was in that lovely little house 'cause there are three opera houses in Prague. The one to see Mozart in would be the Estates Theatre.

“I’ve seen Don Giovanni as opera in concert at a music festival in Basel. Period instruments conducted by Giovanni Antonioni with a stellar cast and it was more interesting.” You know, often these days, I must admit, I often enjoy concert or semi-staged performances rather than these outrageous, self-indulgent productions.

“This is Reina saying she saw a wonderful Figaro at The Met yesterday. So I’m glad that that was good. Circular constructed centrepiece with three to four scenario areas made the stage seem smaller.” Well that’s a challenge of course with that enormous stage. Robert, thank you. Thank you so much for your compliments.

Q: “Who is the designer of the set, the flying staircases near the beginning of your lecture?”

A: I don’t know which one that was. Was it the French one? The Paris Opera one? I don’t know who designed that, but it’s the mid-19th century one.

Barbara Gryce, “Lyric Opera Chicago did a beautiful production of "Don Giovanni” in 2014 directed by Robert Falls.“ Right, thank you.

Q: What is the equivalent?

A: Well you have recitative in oratorios. You also have recitative. It’s the same thing. Joseph, yes, Joseph Losey’s brilliant film. It was one of the- usually I don’t really like opera films. But that was pretty wonderful. Raimondi, very convincing, a slightly grim Don Giovanni, but sexy in his way, and believable.

This is Joan. She’s just saying her favourite Don Giovanni is Thomas Allen. Yes! Ezio Pinza was in "South Pacific” right at the end of his career and does the most incredible version of “Some Enchanted Evening.” I really recommend you listen to that on YouTube.

“Have seen and heard "Don Giovanni” in Zurich, not bad, and at The Met. Beautiful but somehow provoked an ugh feeling because so realistic.“

Thanks for compliments. "Whenever my mother and aunt saw Ezio Pinza in his white costume with Don Giovanni, they came home totally smitten!” Actually you know, I meant to tell you a story that he, Bruno Walter in his autobiography says that 'cause he conducted many “Don Giovannis” with Ezio Pinza. And he said he knew he was the man for the role because Pinza came to see him in his flat in New York and he rang the doorbell. And he said the maid who answered the door was so flustered and excited by Pinza. He thought, “Yeah, that’s the man. That’s Don Giovanni.” And actually it had terrible consequences for Bruno Walter because Pinza seduced his daughter. And then Bruno Walter’s daughter’s husband in a fit of jealousy actually murdered her. “I was surprised to discover the song ,” which yes, of course that’s the German for the .

Many mezzos sing Zerlina. Yes, they can do if you have a lyric mezzo. 'Cause anyway Zerlina, Bertha has got quite an extension of her voice.

Mariusz Kwiecien, yes, I’ve seen him, but not in “Don Giovanni.” He must be wonderful in that role. Yeah, Baccaloni, he’s my favourite in it. He’s just, and so wonderful in all those live broadcasts from The Met from the 1930s and 40s. Zeffirelli “Don Giovanni.” I’m trying to think. I don’t think I’ve seen that. I don’t think. You don’t mean the Joseph Losey one, do you? I can’t think of a Zeffirelli one.

Q: “What is it with Seville? So many operas set there.”

A: I’ve never been there. Trudy and I are planning to, she loves it and she’s always saying, “Let’s go!” And I somehow, I think we will. We were going to go if it weren’t for Covid.

The first Zerlina, the one on the left. Who did I show? I’m just trying to think who it was. I can’t think.

Has anyone written an opera? No, well of course they should do 'cause there is the Bernard Shaw play about Don Giovanni in the after world that would actually make rather a good. They probably have actually.

America Bodi, “I personally don’t like Sutherland in Mozart.” Well I, as you may have guessed, I’m not a huge Sutherland fan. But I know lots of people are and I don’t want to spoil their pleasure.

Best recommendations. Let me think about that. I will think about that. And next week I’ll, I’ll ask also my friend Michael in Munich, who’s got an encyclopaedic knowledge of all these recordings. Between us, we’ll put together a list of the best recordings for you. I don’t know the Chernikov production. Trying to remember the hilarious piss take of Okie Medici. I think Madonna. I don’t know that, sorry.

Q: Who sang Don Giovanni?

A: Well, unfortunately, that is just a solo recording. It’s not from a complete recording. But there exists, and it’s not appeared yet, a complete live performance from Covent Garden just before the Second World War with Pinza and with Tauber. And I can’t die until somebody discovers that and publishes it.

Claire Baum saying that her family who didn’t adore Richard Tauber? He’s, you know, he was housewives’ choice of course, in England.

Frida Leider, yes, of course “leider” means unfortunately. There’s a certain type of Austrian woman of a certain age who loves to, who talks with a permanently kind of sighing intonation and will end each sentence with the word “leider, leider” with an Austrian accent, sighing.

Thanks for your nice comments. Yes, it was a Pyrenees that went with the Overture. Zeffirelli “Don Giovanni” at Covent Garden, 1965-ish.

Is it? What is the name? Is it? Of the Bernard Shaw play? I can’t, is it “Don Giovanni in Hell”? I can’t remember. But it’s very funny. There’s a very funny character in it. He sure makes huge fun of anti-Semites in that play. There’s a really ghastly character who has to be reminded that the Virgin Mary was Jewish and who gets very upset about it.

Lisa Della Casa, yes. I’m going to play you Lisa Della Casa next week. Wonderful, wonderful singer. She sang both roles. Well, she probably sang all three actually. But she certainly sang Elvira and Anna. Do I have a favourite conductor of Mozart’s operas? I’m not sure that I do. It certainly wouldn’t be Toscanini. Oh dear! That “Magic Flute” from Salzburg! “Don Juan in Hell.” That’s it! Thank you very much.

Brilliant! “There’s a staging where Don Giovanni is homeless and Zerlina is Donna Anna’s daughter.” Oh god, really? What is the matter with these people?

Q: Where would you find the Shaw play?

A: I’m quite sure you could buy it very cheaply if you go on Amazon or Abe Books. In the Shaw play, he’s pronounced Don Ju-wan.

“Man and Superman” is, yes, “Man and Superman.” But is- that’s Ron and I’m sure he’s right.

Q: But isn’t Don Juan, “Don Ju-wan in Hell” part of “Man and Superman”?

A: I’m not sure about that. Thomas Schipper’s Mozart, I don’t know it well enough to be able to comment.

And that seems for the end of the questions. So I’ll continue with “Don Giovanni” on Wednesday. And thank you all for listening. Thank you all for your interesting comments or kind comments and see you on Wednesday.