Rating: 
Summary: BRILLIANT!
Review: This must be the best opera film ever produced. The cinematography is wonderful, the singing and acting, on the whole, excellent and what can one say about Ruggero? He is the ONLY Giovanni.
Rating:
Summary: The best published performance ever.
Review: This production is the best published performance of Don Giovanni that I have seen. The recording suffers a little from technical glitches, but the performances, direction, and meanings are all right on target! How I wish that this was available on DVD, with the technical glitches cured.I would not hesitate to purchase this video, especially since it seems like it is getting harder to find. How sad to lose this. Imagine the publishing studios thinking that one performance is as good as another! Nothing could be farther from the truth. Ruggero Raimondi is the only Don Giovanni that can carry the role in the past 150 years. Bravo to him.
Rating:
Summary: Impossible not to love.
Review: This version is possibly the greatest I've ever seen. I cannot say it definately, because I also couldn't resist the version with Riccardo Muti. This version is staged in a really good way too. There is one thing about it that is ultimate: the translation. I can speak some Italian, & the translation is like none other than I've ever seen before. Rugerro Raimondi is absolutely perfect for the part of Don Giovanni. He has a beautiful baritone voice, he can act really, really good, & he looks exactly like what I have pictured Don Giovanni. Jose Van Dam is great as Leporello. He is a very good bass, & has good acting skills. Kiri Te Kanawa is the best person ever for Donna Elvira. I have loved her singing for a great long time, & have wanted to see a version of Don Giovanni with her in it for a real long time. If you're wondering who the valet in black is, he is one of the servants of Don Giovanni who doesn't run away in the dinne scene with the Commendatore, & watches. This is such a good version of Don Giovanni, & you really would love to see it. If you don't know wich version of this opera to get, then take my advice, & get this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Don Giovanni Disappoints
Review: This version of Don Giovanni is dominated by Losey's need to be recognized every minute of every scene.
The three female roles are beautifully sung but the directing is so distracting that it is difficult to focus on the wonderful voices and the music.
As an a opera lover, I feel the director needs to enhance the audience's enjoyment of the music, not supplant it.
Clearly not a low budget opera, the settings are varied and beautiful if somewhat incongruous.
Like others that have reviewed this opera, I felt the sound was poor. Additionally I felt the electronic modification of the weaker voices was so obvious it was amusing, as were the frantic actions the singers were performing while they were supposedly singing (ie. Raimondi sings with his mouth full of food).
The dinner scene and descent into hell scenes (my favorites) were weak and off focus, not at all representing the dark quality of the music. The statue of the commendatore was a non-starter.
I would rate this version of Don Giovanni harsher but for the joy of the voices of Te Kanawa, Moser and Berganza.
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece viewed through a broken window
Review: This was a fantastic experience for me in that the sum of the parts was greater than the whole. If I had to rate parts individually, I would Rate Cinema effects 3, Audio 2 Acting 3 Singing 3 (because much of it appeared to be lip synched). Nevertheless, the Italian country side views were exquisite! If you compare this work to a visit to La Scala, you'll be diappointed. But if you compare it a good movie, you'll be happy. In this context I rated it a 4 to Amadeus' 5.
Rating: 
Summary: Marvelous Audio Visual Experience
Review: This was a fantastic experience for me in that the sum of the parts was greater than the whole. If I had to rate parts individually, I would Rate Cinema effects 3, Audio 2 Acting 3 Singing 3 (because much of it appeared to be lip synched). Nevertheless, the Italian country side views were exquisite! If you compare this work to a visit to La Scala, you'll be diappointed. But if you compare it a good movie, you'll be happy. In this context I rated it a 4 to Amadeus' 5.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Opera On Film..Don Giovanni Triumphs
Review: What could be more perfect ? Mozart's masterpiece made into a movie ? An excellent orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel, performances by Ruggero Raimondi (Don Giovanni), Jose Van Daam (Leporello), Edda Moser (Donna Ana), Teresa Berganza (Zerlina) and the great Kiri Te Kenawa as Donna Elvira. The movie was filmed in Italy, as closest to Seville, Spain as we can get in the opera world, is beautiful to look at, effectively festive in Don Giovanni's masquerade ball scene and hellishly frightening in the Commandatore Scene. Everyone knows the story, and shame on you, if you don't. Don Giovanni is the legendary womanizer, boasting from the opera's first act that he has bedded hundreds and hundreds of women. His decadent days are apparently over, for throughout the opera he fails at his attempts to seduce (Dona Ana whom he attempts to rape and in the process kills her father the Commandatore who will come back from the dead to extract his vengeance, Zerlina the young, newly engaged peasant girl and the one woman who truly loves him, Donna Elvira, he wants nothing to do with. This opera is beautifully performed, masterfully performed and the vocal talents are exceptional; particularily on the part of the women. Edda Moser as the wronged Dona Ana is touching (Edda Moser sang the role of the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Magic Flute with the Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, and considering her intensely Wagnerian style in that performance, this is a lyrical stray for her), Teresa Berganza sings a gorgeous Zerlina, passive, easily seduced, and of course, there is the great Kiri Te Kenawa, a diva in her own right, who sings Donna Elvira very convincingly. As for the men, all are brilliant. Raimondi as the Don is the greatest. He IS the seventeenth century infamous playboy, dark, handsome and libertine, and his final scene with the Commandatore who sends a legion of demons to drag him into hell is a triumph. Jose Van Daam touches us with comic brilliance as his man servant Leporello. This is the greatsest Don Giovanni ever produced. Five Stars all the way. You must have this film and on DVD it's a magnificent experience.
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