DON GIOVANNI

DON GIOVANNI:Mozart
Original Air Date: 03/03/1973
Maag; Siepi, Moser, Flagello, Lorengar, Shirley, Elias
SID.19220640
This is Siepi’s farewell broadcast to the Met, and Moser and Lorengar are particularly good foils for him. I wish Corena had joined him for the this, but Flagello is a very solid Leporello. We are still missing from Sirius Siepi’s 1957 new production broadcast and his 1967 with Sutherland and Lorengar under Bohm. Two of Siepi’s best Don Giovanni broadcasts have not been on Sirius (with Steber and Della Casa under Bohm in 1957 and Bohm again with Sutherland and Lorengar in 1967). This is Siepi’s Met broadcast farewell, his final performance coming a month later as Don Basilio in a Prey/Horne Barbiere. The first Siepi Don to be broadcast in the Sirius series, mighty Cesare had 11 broadcasts of the role between 1952 and 1973. Lorengar and Moser are under-represented on commercial recordings, but both fine Mozarteans; this is also George Shirley’s final broadcast, and along with Simon Estes, they are the only African American males to have had any significant (leading roles, broadcasts) role at the Met so far. Two other Siepi Don Giovanni broadcasts are urgently requested: the 1957 under Karl Bohm with the new production cast (Steber, Della Casa, Peters, Peerce for Valletti in the broadcast, Corena) and the 1967 also under Bohm with the most potent bass clef for the final scene in the history of the opera (Siepi, Flagello (in his prime which this 1973 isnt), Giaiotti plus Sutherland and Lorengar); the 1978 telecast and subsequent broadcast should be revisited for Julia Varady’s only Met appearances and fine ones as Elvira and a very young but juicy of voice James Morris along with Sutherland again. Once again I will make a plea for two of Siepi’s great Don Giovanni broadcasts, the first year of the Graf/Berman production in 1957 with Bohm conducting Steber and Della Casa, and a decade later in the first season in Lincoln Center again with Bohm conducting and Sutherland in a rare Met non-Bonynge appearance with Lorengar and Flagello from this cast, but 6 years earlier. These two continuing omissions leave big gaps on both Sirius and MOoD. . And while I am at it I will make a plea for Siepi’s 3 unheard Faust Mephistophes– 2 with Bjorling in 1950 and 1959 and his final broadcast of Faust with Gedda, Lorengar, and Merrill from 1969.