I recently reviewed the DVD of Hampe’s production of 1991 at the Cologne Opera. This staging, also by Hampe, dates from four years earlier and enshrines one of Karajan’s final offerings at the Salzburg Festival. John Steane reviewed its laserdisc incarnation back in April 1993 when he didn’t comment on the production, but admired, as I do, the distinguished contributions of the two donne, especially that of Varady, an Elvira as stylish and convincing as they come as regards singing and acting. Furlanetto was another of JBS’s favourites, as he is of mine. He appears in the Cologne performance to even greater advantage, because there he is teamed with Allen’s demonic Giovanni. Here his partner is the much blander, less charismatic Ramey. Winbergh’s Ottavio is superior to his Cologne counterpart, his technical finesse and control exemplary, but the young lovers are blank, Battle making little if any attempt to act the part – except that of herself acting the part, if you see what I mean. She looks a trifle mature, as do all the principals, Ramey and Furlanetto apart.
Karajan seems – inevitably – a shade stiff-limbed himself, his interpretation somewhat marmoreal beside Conlon’s much more vital reading. Pagano’s sets fill the wide stage of the Grosses Festspielhaus effectively and Hampe’s direction within them is convincing enough, but at Cologne he seems able to make everything much more vital and immediate – except in the case of Giovanni’s demise, which is a real coup de theatre at Salzburg. Picture and sound are as faultless as they are on the earlier issue, but in spite of inferior donne in Cologne, that version is the one to choose for catching more of the work’s essence.'