Mozart: Don Giovanni – Brownlee, Souez, Busch, Naxos Historical (3CD)

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Product Details

• UPC: 636943113523
• Catalogue Number: 8.110135-37
• Brand/Label: Naxos Historical
• Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Conductor: Fritz Busch
• Performers: John Brownlee, Ina Souez, Luise Helletsgruber, Audrey Mildmay, Koloman von Pataky, David Franklin, Roy Henderson, Salvatore Baccaloni
• Ensemble: Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and Orchestra
• Release Year: 2001 (original recording 1936)
• Genre: Classical – Opera
• Country of Producing: European Union (EU)

Product Features

• Format: 3 Audio CDs, ADD
• Total playing time: 200:52 (CD1: 65:02 · CD2: 67:35 · CD3: 68:15)
• Restoration: mastered by archivist Ward Marston from original 78rpm sources
• Packaging: standard 3-disc jewel case, series artwork sleeve

Overview

This is Glyndebourne's Don Giovanni as it actually sounded in the summer of 1936 — recorded across a single week, 29 June to 5 July, in the small Sussex opera house where the Mozart-Da Ponte revival effectively began. Fritz Busch, who'd left Germany rather than work under the Nazi regime, drives the score with a clarity and forward pulse that still sounds startlingly modern next to later, more monumental readings. John Brownlee sings the title role with the kind of unforced charm that made him Glyndebourne's first-choice baritone, while Salvatore Baccaloni's Leporello brings comic timing that would later define his career at the Met. Ward Marston's restoration work strips away decades of surface noise without sanding off the room sound — you can hear the singers moving on stage, which is part of what makes this document so alive. For collectors of historical opera recordings or anyone curious what the early Mozart revival actually sounded like, this is closer to a time machine than a remaster.

Interesting Facts

• This 1936 recording is among the earliest complete studio accounts of Don Giovanni ever committed to disc.
• Fritz Busch left Germany in 1933 in protest at the Nazi regime and became Glyndebourne's founding music director, shaping its early Mozart performance style.
• John Brownlee had created the role of Count Almaviva under Richard Strauss's baton at Glyndebourne's inaugural 1934 season.
• Salvatore Baccaloni (Leporello) went on to become one of the Metropolitan Opera's most celebrated buffo basses for over two decades.
• Ward Marston, the archivist and restoration producer behind this release, is a Grammy-nominated audio restoration engineer specializing in pre-war recordings.
• The performance was captured live over the course of a week during Glyndebourne's original festival season, rather than assembled from studio patch sessions.

Track Listing

CD1 (65:02) — Tracks 1–27: Act I, Scenes I–III CD2 (67:35) — Tracks 1–11: Act I, Scenes IV–V · Tracks 12–29: Act II, Scenes I–II CD3 (68:15) — Tracks 1–14: Act II, Scenes III–V · Tracks 15–23: Excerpts, Various Solo Artists

Publishers

Naxos Historical, an archival imprint of Naxos/HNH International Ltd, dedicated to restoring and reissuing significant early recordings of opera, orchestral, and vocal music.

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