belcantopera's video: DON GIOVANNI - Ezio Pinza dir Bruno Walter Met 1942 Complete Opera Mozart

Metropolitan Opera Matinée Broadcast 7th March, 1942 Don Giovanni - Ezio Pinza Donna Anna - Rose Bampton Don Ottavio - Charles Kullman Donna Elvira - Jarmila Novotna Leporello - Alexander Kipnis Zerlina - Bidú Sayão Masetto - Mack Harrell Commendatore - Norman Cordon Conductor - Bruno Walter ------------------------------------- Above all, this performance gels as an ensemble piece which successfully captures the febrile pace and momentum of this opera as primarily a piece of drama rather than just a display of accomplished singing. Bruno Walter pushes hard but certainly generates tension and drama. For example, "Trema, trema, scellerato" (1:28:23) and the sextet "Mille torbidi pensieri" (2:00:02) are thrilling in their headlong pace. Ezio Pinza himself, of course, had the smoothest and most flexible of basses, easily able to encompass the vocal demands of the role while always suggesting the wit and charm without which Don Giovanni is a detestable thug. He was, by all accounts, as enthusiastic a seducer in real life as the character he plays here: Alfin siam liberati... Là ci darem la mano (38:19) Finch'han dal vino (1:03:21) Finale I - Riposate, vezzose ragazze (1:21:39) Finale II - Già la mensa è preparata (2:27:39) Mention has been elsewhere of the surprising success of casting Kipnis as Leporello despite his Slavic Italian and he keeps up with Pinza in their quick - very quick - fire exchanges. I like Rose Bampton's large, powerful and highly expressive Dona Anna who is completely on top of the fearsome demands of "Or sai chi l'onore" (54:02). Charles Kullmann is fine as Ottavio and his tenor is more virile than it was to become in the 50's. Sayao is a delightful, pert, pure-voiced Zerlina, the best on record, I think. Novotna is a faintly tremulous but impassioned and fiery Elvira, slightly lacking in her lower register. Mack Harrell makes more of Masetto than some of his successors and he has more than enough voice for a part which is too often under-cast. Norman Cordon is not the biggest, blackest Commendatore but, again, is more than adequate and has enough volume and steady intensity to chill the listener. Despite expert clean-up of the original 78's, the sound is still fuzzy and congested. Individual voices emerge best from the orchestral soup and we can hear the allure of Pinza's suave and saturnine seducer. ------------------------------------- LE NOZZE DI FIGARO - Ezio Pinza, dir Bruno Walter, 1937 (Complete Opera Mozart): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZPpBwqm4iM -------------------------------------