In the Don Giovanni room of some future museum of opera on record‚ this new version from Budapest will probably not be exhibited with any very special pride or prominence‚ yet here in the present it is at least worth consideration. By and large the music is well played and well sung: a lively performance that is not driven by somebody’s interesting (but invasive) theory; and of course it’s on Naxos‚ which means its price is attractive. A special feature is that it follows the original score as given at Prague in 1787 rather than the usual amalgam of that and the revised version made for Vienna a year later. This at any rate reduces the immediate competition on records‚ although in fact the differences are not so very great and the numbers added‚ or substituted‚ for performance in Vienna are included in an appendix. Most notably‚ the absences that may surprise the unsuspecting but otherwise familiar listener are of Ottavio’s ‘Dalla sua pace’ and Elvira’s ‘Mi tradì’ with its recitative. There are other differences‚ and in Mackerras’s recording from the Edinburgh Festival of 1995 these are incorporated in the CDs so that the listener has either to skip over certain tracks or play part of the opera twice. Most‚ I should think‚ will find the present arrangement more convenient‚ and will probably agree with the view‚ most recently expressed by David Parry who uses the Prague text for his recording in English‚ that the structural and musical advantages justify a belief that in this version ‘it is dramatically concise and powerful to a greater extent‚ perhaps‚ than any other of Mozart’s operas.’ Stanley Sadie once remarked that all Don Giovannis should have an Italian somewhere in the cast‚ and it certainly helps this one to get off to a good start when Renato Girolami voices his ‘Notte e giorno faticar’ with an authentic accent and good Italianate resonance. Skovhus’s Giovanni has lost something in vocal quality since the Mackerras recording‚ but he lives the role with conviction. A firm and sonorous Commendatore and a Masetto due for promotion strengthen the cast‚ while the Ottavio adds to its interest: a capable singer‚ who in his determination to make something positive out of this generally ineffectual character produces a charmless‚ rather hectoring champion brought in from some other opera‚ and not one by Mozart. Of the women‚ Adrianne Pieczonka‚ the Anna‚ is best‚ with clear‚ bright tones that just occasionally want hoisting a fraction higher to take those high As right in the centre. The Elvira is sympathetic and meets many of the technical challenges. The Zerlina‚ no soubrette but more a lyrical mezzo‚ has the knack of singing ‘visibly’. Competitive versions‚ also of the Prague score‚ are those under‚ respectively‚ Gustav Kuhn and Arnold Östman. Both are lighter in texture than this‚ which uses a full modern opera­house orchestra. Its touch is not heavy (though the resonant acoustic thickens it somewhat)‚ but the others answer more closely to a taste for authentic Baroque sound; and Östman’s Drottningholm company in particular has a very special insight to offer. Michael Halász‚ his singers and players‚ have merely Mozart‚ together with their highly competent selves and Naxos’s bargain price.