Just marvellous, what else !Absolutely a must have

A TRULY GREAT LIVE PERFORMANCE! A MUST! TO BE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This performance was once available on the now defunct Verona label in a transfer a full half-tone flat. Correct pitching of these older broadcasts is so important; many terrific recordings have been issued flat or sharp thereby ruining a great performance (even EMI got some of the Callas broadcast performances wrong). There's no excuse for it. We are in Andy's debt that he has issued this terrific Giovanni at the correct pitch.And it is terrific. Wunderlich gets to encore "Il mio tesoro" and Price gets an enormous ovation after "Non mi dir". Gueden is very good, if slightly past her prime. Wachter and Berry make a great servant and master pair, Sciutti and Panerai an excellent downstairs couple. Karajan actually sounds engaged in the performance!The sound is excellent broadcast mono. Thank you, Andy!

Absolutely superb from beginning to end! Price's Donna Anna is beyond belief! Not a weak link in the cast. Von K. leads a spirited performance and Wunderlich manages to stir the Viennese audience enough that they demand and get the just-as-good encore of Il Mio Tesoro. I have obtained several superb performances of various works from Opera Depot. THIS tops the list!

Agree with all the positive comments here. I bought this for Price & Wunderlich but was captivated by the rest of the cast, too, including the Zerlina, a singer unknown to me. David M.'s comment on Waechter's Don is spot on. The orchestral sound in this mono recording shifts between muddy and oddly imbalanced. But the voices come thru clearly. And what voices!

This is certainly a performance not to be missed on every count except for one. I regret that -much as I admire Hilde Gueden in what I consider to be her "proper" territory (Sophie, Susanna, Zerlina, Despina, Pamina, even Eva and Daphne...)- for me she is miscast as Elvira. I know that she made the transition to heavier roles in the late-'50s but for me, based on existing recordings/performances, she doesn't quite "work" in much of the more mature Mozartian repertoire. Here she is "okay" for much of the opera; not great or particularly distinctive but overall decent and fine in ensemble (and I note David M.'s comment about Schwarzkopf!) However, in 'Mi tradi' she seems to rather fall apart, especially as she approaches the final stretch, unable to cope with the demands made by Mozart for Cavalieri and the revised, 1788 Vienna version. Despite lengthy applause, which might be for who Gueden is rather than what she does, she just about makes it to the end. This is a shame but -in such august company- this singer must be judged at the highest level!

Herbert von Karajan's years at the helm of the Vienna State Opera were known for their all-star casts and this Don Giovanni is no exception. The roster of singers is self-recommending, nearly all at or near the top of their class, whether we're speaking of Leontyne Price's Donna Anna (a role she never recorded commercially) or Rolando Panerai making something positive of the thankless Masetto. Hilde Gueden is a persuasive Donna Elvira, even if she veers close to Elisabeth Schwarzkopf territory at a couple of junctures, while Eberhard Waechter is a Don not to be denied, so manic are his appetites. If there is a headline performance it is Fritz Wunderlich's Don Ottavio, one of the great assumptions of the part and so excellent that the Viennese demand (and get) an encore of Il mio tesoro -- and darned if it isn't even better the second time through. Karajan conducts like a man possessed, although he gives the singers room when they need it, as in the case of his beloved Price. It only remains to be said that of the many souvenirs of Walter Berry's Leporello this is the best. If you love Don Giovanni you won't want to be without this recording.

One of the best - of many - performances of the opera that I have ever come across. Whilst individual performances or playing or conducting might (pace Wunderlich, Price and Berry) be more stylish, dramatic, accurate on other recording, as a complete all-round, ensemble experience this takes the laurel.