Don giovanni is in my opinion the greatest dramatic opera ever. It takes furtwangler and this absolutly incredible cast to bring the music to life

I have just discovered this priceless treasure - certainly the best Don Giovanni I have seen (and that's quite a few). Unlike some modern productions, the staging brings out the drama and the humour, rather than obscuring it, while the singing is magnificent all round. Simply wonderful!

1:36 overture 7:08 act I, sc. 1 - palace of the Commendatore 21:26 sc 2 - street in Seville 36:00 sc 3 - the countryside 1:03:17 - "Finch'han dal vino" (Don G's only aria) 1:04:52 sc 4 - garden outside Don Giovanni's castle 1:06:03 - Zerlina, "Batti, batti" 1:16:45 - the minuet 1:20:37 sc 5 - Don Giovanni's ballroom 1:30:31 act 2, sc 1 - the square near Donna Elvira's house 1:52:45 sc 2 - garden outside Donna Anna's house 2:15:27 sc 3 - a graveyard at night 2:23:14 sc 4 - a room in Donna Anna's house 2:31:56 finale - Don Giovanni's ballroom

I am amazed this was 1954 - but I have yet to see any production to date that rivals this one in terms of the singers on stage. They are the best.

Siepi is the greatest. His legato is perfect.

Brilliant. A great cast and conductor

Die weitaus beste Aufführung des Don Giovanni mit so vielen überragenden Sängern !

This is the best Don Giovanni out there to this day. Very theatrical, beautiful and authentic set and costumes, and the most emblematic Don you could wish for. Leporelo also shines here as a comic relief. Impecable and inspired performance musicwise.

Versione meravigliosa di un'opera *leggendaria* 😍 Siepi è il Don Giovanni ideale, recita sublimamente nei pezzi buffi e nei pezzi tragici, e poi che presenza, che voce! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥💖💕

This is wonderfully staged and performed. One could say such staging and acting is a lost art.

This is the greatest performance of the greatest opera in music history. So sad that Mozart died too early.

Pra mim essa é a melhor performance dessa ópera! Que época de ouro!

Don Giovanni is the best opera that ever was written.

Wonderful production...Siepi had the most beautiful and supple Bass Baritone voice of any singer in this role.

I love the opera Don Giovanni and have listened and watched to so many that I've lost count. But this one still ranks as one of my favorites as far as the quality of the singing. Cesare Siepi's voice is so deep, rich and glorious. And Elisabeth Grummer (Donna Anna) is just breath taking in it's beauty and clarity. The entire cast is still a joy to listen to after 61 years.

Eine Traumbesetzung mit dem besten Don Giovanni aller Zeiten

Cesare Siepi in his signature role under the baton of one of the greatest conductors of all times. Excellent job! Many thanks, dear Janja.

Just seeing maestro Furtwängler makes this amazing...one of the greatest conductors in recording history. I adore Furtwängler and am thrilled to get to see him at the podium. Glorious Overture

A mai napig ez a legjobb Don Giovanni. Pedig 1954 - ben mutatták be kiváló hangú énekesekkel, akik egyúttal remek színészek is voltak. A legnagyobb érdem a karmester Furtwangleré! Ha lenné zenei fődíj, ez az előadás megérdemelné! Miként a szobrászatban Michelangelo Pietája. Minden művészeti ágban szükség lenne rá. Ezeket védetté kellene nyilvánítani! Értékesebb lenne, mint egy Nobel - díj.

Прекрасная постановка. Удивительные голоса. Чистое искусство. Благодарю.

Wow! Gorgeous! Beautiful production. So refreshing to see a production which does not try to reinvent the story. Great singing too. Such a brilliant opera!

Truly the best project and the best experience of Don Giovanni. Words cannot do it justice. And notice how beautifully framed it s by this crew and how well edited. You see every scene and action, just amazing.

I saw this when I was 12. It was shown in B & W. No color TV. I watched the whole thing without getting up. I couldn't move or look away though it was December and it was cold in the room. I was in a sort of spell.

Great performance - the best online for Mozart's Don Giovanni Furtwangler is the emperor of conductors

These people knew how to sing! Unlike so many singers of today, they didn't need amplification in order to be heard past the second row. This is opera.

Wow! It's a real masterpiece. Thanks for sharing.

De ésta versión, no se puede poner ni quitar nada. Dirección, foso orquestal y cantantes, a una, puesta en escena y tramoya, perfectas. ¿Que hacemos ahora? Solo disfrutar. Es sin duda el mejor D.Giovanni de todos los vistos. Siepi... Siepi...you are the best.

This theatrical performance is the best I have seen. Marvelous and deep thrilling music of Mozart. This opera is trully the best yet written in this life.

I'm sure everybody here knows Flaubert said the three greatest things ever made were this, Hamlet, and the sea. But it's so worth repeating.

Erna Berger. born 1900, can sing with 54, when she never left her Fach without lose any quality. She sang still Queen of Night in age of 68.

Cesare Siepi = großartig! Für mich der beste Don Giovanni den ich je gehört habe und seine Gesangstechnik ist unvergleichlich und vorbildlich, ein "Singen aus der Mitte"! Spielerische Höhen, Farbenreichtum und ein Spiel mit der Dynamik.-

How wonderful! Apart from the glorious sound Furtwangler draws out of the orchestra it is so good to see the simple camerawork without all the irritating camera angles of himself HvK demanded.

I love the way they interpreted mozart back then. It was a bit too heavy sometimes, but much deeper than nowadays in my opinion.

Man alive! This is superb.

Csodálatos zene, remek előadás - maradandó élmény!

Thank you for sharing this whole stage with English subtitles. This helped me to understand. I’m ready to see this opera tomorrow first time in my life!

Köszönet ezért a csodálatos előadás feltöltéséért!

My word della Casa is beautiful as are the voices of Grummer and Edelmann. The whole darn thing is beautiful. Truly amazing. Thanks for the post. Better even than the '53 Furtwangler version. Wow and wow.

Most enjoyable performance I can't believe it is 60. Years old courtesy of modern life and technology and of course the poster many thanks

Impresionante versión. Pasaron 60 años de esto, y es difícil encontrar una versión que pueda igualar la calidad artística y técnica de esta puesta en escena. / Impressive version. Sixty years later, is hard to find a rendition that can match the artistic and technical quality of this screenplay.

Superb! So much better than today! The voices are clear and perfect

Quel immense chef d'opéra, quel sens du théâtre, des tempos parfois lents mais jamais pesants et tellement habités à l'image du Furtwangler de la dernière période, merci Mozart pour l'opéra des opéras, formule de Wagner, et merci Furtwangler pour cette interprétation d'une tension inoubliable avec une distribution magistrale comme toujours avec sans doute le plus grand chef d'orchestre de tous les temps

The addition of English subtitles is wonderful! Thank you Herur22 for your good work. Anton Demota and Elisabeth Grummer are sublime as Anna and Ottavio and very tender and believable couple. Beautiful performances.

Seeing as I listen to this once a month in its entirety-thank you - and often watch most of it... Jes sayin' This is perfection! I just can't stay away and post my appreciation! Again and again!

Des interprètes de très haut vol avec entre autres Lisa della Casa et Cesare Siepi, un orchestre impeccable, "chanteur invisible", un maître comme Furtwängler au pupitre et de plus le tout joué sans public : voilà bien la "version de référence" du Don Giovanni de Mozart !!!

This is wonderful, thank you so much! Lovely to see plenty of acting too, not just park & bark like so many operas from this era. Bravi tutti!

Thanks a million for helping us getting rid of the Spanish subtitles, which most of us, non-Spaniards, find most annoying. Italian lyrics as subtitles would also be a valuable addition, and a most instructive one. The Met offers Italian and English. The Italian words are so much more amusing and exciting, hotter and more full of passion than the somewhat cold and neutral English. Da Ponte nailed that drama just perfectly. Mozart never got a better libretto. As a theatrical performance, this is simply tops. Siepi is the Don Giovanni for all times. Nobody comes close. And to have both Grümmer and Lisa Della Casa together is pure enchantment. And nobody does Leporello more convincingly than Edelmann. The whole cast is the best of all times too. The staging is superb and convincing, with no visible weakness. And Furtwängler delivers the nervous energy of the fabulous score. This is by far the Don Giovanni to have and enjoy for ever. As a theatrical piece, Don Giovanni is considered one of the superlative operas of the repertory. And rightly so. Some, carried away by their enthusiasm, call it the best opera of them all. Though that could be said of many other operas, depending on your taste and experience. But let's not be misled into falling for the idolatry of believing that this Don Giovanni represents the absolute, unmatchable peak of Mozart's music. The opera owes a great deal to the story concocted by Da Ponte, and his taut, exciting, forward -moving libretto. But Mozart never wanted to write another Don Giovanni. As is clear in the next three operas he wrote, which have no relation to the music in Don Giovanni. Each of Mozart's operas is different and sui generis, one of a kind, each one beautiful thanks to the unlimited musical creativity of the composer. I love Don Giovanni, but I love as well the graceful, energizing and scintillating music of Mozart's youthful operas, such as "La Betulia Liberata" or "Ascanio in Alba", "Mitridate", "Il Re Pastore", or "La Finta Giardiniera". Or even the stunning "Apollo et Hyacinthus", sung in Latin, and composed by a boy of 11, if you can imagine that! And I've been able to listen to Cosi every day for a full summer, something which I could not do with the "heavy" Don Giovanni. But no other of Mozart's operas has been so masterfully performed as this exceptional Don Giovanni. We are so unbelievably lucky to have this great film! Thank God that we live in this extraordinarily blessed period when we have KZfaq to deliver this in full color and full sound. If you get the magnificent DVD by Deutsche Grammophon, you get the subtitles in Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, and CHINESE! So the publisher is 100% certain of the worldwide appeal of this supreme masterpiece, even though it is in old-fashioned MONO sound (Salzburg Festival 1954). This was not a filmed performance, the theater with its stage settings was turned into a studio where the filming and recording were done over many days. Amazingly, when you watch Furtwängler's dynamic conducting and majestic figure, you couldn't guess that he was to die only a few months later in Nov. 1954.

Thank you very much for sharing this masterpiece. For 20 years I wish I could skip Mozart but I feel as if I'm totally captured in his wonderful world forever.

Un bel opéra dirigé par un grand maestro !! Merci chère Janja pour votre excellent choix !! Un opéra à voir et écouter, chanté par de grands interprètes... Je le garde pour moi ... Amitiés, Marie

Magnificent! Perfection in the best sense of the word, the driving power of word and music complemented by a fitting grace and fluidity of acting.

GRAZIE. SEMPLICENTE ECCEZIONALE.

I have this DVD, one of the best Don Giovanni ever.

Siepi, Ramey, Petri i miei preferiti Don Giovanni. Bellissima interpretazione: nonostante la dizione dei cantanti stranieri non risulti perfetta, la parte canora è ineccepibile, da veri mozartiani. ❤🌹👏👏👏

I am so happy they recorded this Don Giovanni in 1954, but sad nobody considered recording Maria Callas in a full opera . This recording is unbelievable good. wooow! Singing is amazing too. The only names I knew are Siepi and Furtwängler, but all singers are very good. I was born too late. Thank you so much for uploading!

Wonderful production! Nice costumes , great singers and a perfect orchestra! I really enjoyed watching. Thanks :)

So well acted and sung, magnificent, and still in the catalogue!

A cornucopia of operatic treasures has become available to us in recent weeks. No excuse for us now not to have enjoyed several famous Mozart productions - not least this great Furtwängler Don Giovanni with, Siepi and the rest of this brilliant cast. Nor, given the welcome subtitles, any excuse not to have understood what's going on. Many thanks Janja!

the opera of operas.!

When I first heard in music class a few months ago we'd be going to see this I wasn't convinced, having had absolutely no experience of anything to do with opera. However, having been spending today looking into it and now watching this, I'm actually really excited and. I can't wait to see this on Monday at the Royal Opera House! Thank you so much for uploading this :D The only thing is...I wish Don Giovanni wasn't so infuriating! But that's the entire point, of course :P

Thank you for posting this historically important video!!

Sublime e terrificante nello stesso tempo...

The greatest opera ever! I know it has a lot of competition ...

Bravo all around! Wonderfully0paced conducting, every singer in top form, great ensemble work. Yes, they may have to sing louder than in Mozart's day, but I believe it is owing principally to the larger size of today's opera houses. Hoomeyow!!

Sublime! Una produzione del Don Giovanni eccezionale...una tra le migliori

It is such a pleasure to listen to Mr. Siepi that tears of delight come to my eyes.

L'elegantissimo Siepi incanta sempre tutti

Thanks for posting! One comment I have. As much as I love Kiri Te Kanawa's Donna Elvira, I think Lisa Della Casa's version here blows Te Kanawa's out of the water- no small feat.

Such a historic performance of one of the most iconic operas out there. Salzburg Festival performances tend to have some of the most unquestionably good renditions of everything, and I don't get why! Maybe 'cause it just is, or perhaps I have a bias for it all. But still, the Vienna Philharmonic, Furtwängler in one of his last performances (this was done just three months before his death), and a cast that includes Siepi, Della Casa, Dermota, Berger and other big names of the time - hard to make comparisons. This is my grandfather's favourite rendition of Don Giovanni. It's always had this special place in his heart ever since he first saw it on TV (in black and white). He does have a lot of favourites; he doesn't always make full-on decisions about which whatever is his most favourite, but he says Don Giovanni might be it. He does like the performance of Martti Talvela as the Commendatore better, but everything else about this version for him, especially the account of the Don being taken to hell - no question. Prefers this over any other version.

la mejor versión de la historia. rozando la perfección

IS great work this video remastered .I appreciate .

Greatest Don Giovanni in the world-Cesare Siepi! Only thing missing is the scene wherein Zerlina ties Leporello to a chair and threatens to kill him with a knife. Beautiful and spunky duet, missing from many recordings. Finally, it was put back in more recent recordings. Once you hear it, you'll wonder why it was ever taken out. If you can get a copy of the recording with Suzanne Danco and Walter Berry, you will be delighted!

I'm here because I'm currently reading Murakami's "Killing Commendatore". The plot involves a heavy reference to Don Giovanni so yeah, I need to watch this.

Stupéfiant de maîtrise et de précision. Absolument stupéfiant.

This opera changed forever how operas were to be composed and structured. It also changed how characters were to be developed and what kind of sexual material could be used. Mozart was not only an incredible composer of music., he was also an important innovator. Beautiful opera.

Lovely acting by Zerlina!!!! Batti Batti esp. where she tauntingly in a jubilant manner asks Masetto to hit her when actually she's trying to show how much she loves him and trying to flirt with him. It stole my heart away!!!!!!

I prefer this version to the others I have seen.

Auch schön, Musik sagt mir mehr als Theater!

Appreciate for uploading this treasure!!

Thank you so much for this gem.

Para mi esta es la mejor versión de Don Giovanni de todos los tiempos, gracias por subirla con subtitulos!

Mozart's darkest, most epic creation, positively Wagnerian in it's clear conception and dazzling execution. Cesare Siepi is a stylish, cavalier, almost debonair Don, but still provides the necessary sinister and sometimes savage overtones that sets our protagonist apart from ordinary men. His large, deep, resonant bass projects tones of oak and gold with ease and class as he deftly glides and skips across the stage. His suave good looks and tall lithe figure complete this most aristocratic of Dons. All the other singers look and sound their parts excellently, except perhaps Erna Berger, who looks more like one of my old dinner ladies than the pretty virgin peasant girl she's portraying, but still she works her part well, and her singing is fine. Special mention to Elisabeth Grummer, whose singing is exemplary of the soprano's art. All this drama is coordinated by the steady baton of the legendary Furtwangler. His firm, stable lines make his slowish tempos never sound boring or fatiguing, but instead give everything an stately, ornate grandness. One feel the inexorable tide of doom inevitably approaching the hapless Don, while still relishing the exquisite set pieces of our endlessly tuneful composer, and seeing in full focus his impeccable ensemble writing. The set and costumes are all classic and beautiful, none of this modernist iconoclastic revisionist rubbish here. In short, this is opera as it should be, magically musical, dangerously dramatic, sympathetically sung and carefully conducted. Precious praise to Herur22 for uploading this gem with English subtitles. Enjoy this monster masterpiece.

Pure delight. Get into this and don't look back. To the exhibitor, thanks for this.

Thank you so much for posting.

A very minor observation. If only the film quality could match the sublime music and voices. Excellent. thank you. I was just 15 years old when this was made. Much better that most of todays stuff.

What I love, in addition to what the other commenters have said, is that no one, & I mean not one single character, comes off as ridiculous. There is (dark) humour, to be sure, but no one is ridiculed. Every one sings magnificently. And w great dignity.

Formidabili Siepi, Dermota e Lisa Della Casa

Sadly, shortly after this performance Wilhelm Furtwängler passed away at the age of 68 in 1954.

Una delizia per l'anima. Interpreti eccellenti, direzione magnifica. Trasposizione unica.

Thank you very much for this lovely gem! Best wishes

Wonderful. Thanks ever so much.

unbelievable masterpiece!

The best Don Giovanni ever!

My very first Don Giovanni was at the San Francisco Opera in 1980. Cesare Siepi and Giuseppi Taddei...unforgettable.

Good sound quality. I found myself doing a cross-study: The Overture, as played here, struck me as Beethovenesque in comparison to this Italian rendition W. A. Mozart: Don Giovanni (La Scala, Milano 2011) which seemed more Mozartian; one would conclude that the Austrians played a lot of Beethoven... so I then went over to the Metropolitan rendition Mozart: Don Giovanni · Act I / Luisini · The Metropolitain Opera Orchestra (2011) to see what an 'American' rendition was like - and I detected neither Mozart or Beethoven - it was vanilla (as well as nearly twice as fast), which would indicate that the Americans are 'new', and have a different idea of what things 'should' sound like (as each conductor/orchestra rendered it according to what their sensibilities told them it 'should' sound like)... So I ambled on over to the Royal Opera House Kiri Te Kanawa - Don Giovanni to hear their rendition (and remember I can 'attend' all the performances simultaneously, AND rewind/fast-forward time to dwell on minute details), but by that time my sensitivity to it all was spent, or perhaps is was the rendition - glazed-over with an abundance of restraint...

1:54:13 is sung and acted very well!!! Edelmann/ Dermota/ Grümmer

Thank you for posting it, I'm grateful 🙏

Thank YOU, dear Roberta.

Madre mía la dirección es gloriosa!

Loved Madamina il e questo and the Commendatore scene. Both great scenes.

Emozionante per interpretazione e chiarezza musicale grazieeee