Review: DG's Karajan Opera Box

Karajan's operatic legacy is best represented by his recordings for Decca (happily included here) and EMI/Warner (obviously not included here). But there are some gems on DG too, and I'll let you know what they are. After all, this set "only" has 70 CDs worth of stuff.

[@mitchellgeorge6031]

I love his Don Giovanni with Samuel Ramey as the title role. It’s one of my favourite Don Giovannis. His Marriage of Figaro is also excellent

[@ianng9915]

So many great Karajan outside DG/Decca. His Salome, Cosi, Hansel and Gretel, Rosenkabelier, Falstaff, Tristan, Meistersinger, Pelleas etc. Also so many exciting live performances of Meistersinger and Tristan at Bayreuth, Elektra, Don Carlo, and his Scala recording like his Lucia, Butterfly, trovaltore etc etc As Christa Ludwig said, he was a great opera conductor, but it really depends

[@BryanHalo123]

You bought this so we don't have to. Thank you.

[@erickent4248]

This one I would love to own.

[@djquinn4212]

As far as the Carmen goes, listen to Carreras at least doing the flower song, it’s the best pianissimo B flat ever, truly beautiful singing. Ive never been a fan of Bergonzi singing Canio, he doesn’t have the cut in the sound that you really want. I have the same issue with his radames, but that’s just me. If you want Araiza singing Tamino, and he really was the best Tamino of the 80’s and early 90’s, listen to Marriner. It’s a much better cast. Di Stefano sounds like a shell of himself in that Tosca. The high notes are quite frayed,but Karajan conducts the crap out of it. Turandot has one of the worst splices at that moment, Domingo’s high C is so obviously from a different take and it’s hilarious. The Trovatore is absolutely worth hearing if you don’t mind the poor sonics. Corelli and Price are absolutely phenomenal and Bastianini sings one of the greatest il balen’s ever. It’s not the “however” Trovatore, but one that shows how great an opera conductor Karajan could be when he just let the singers sing, and it’s an opera where the singers have to be allowed to do that. The Otello has the ever storm, Del Monaco is also at his best. Peter Hoffman sings a beautiful Parsifal that matches the rest of the production and it’s right before he wrecked his voice. Keep the opera coming Dave!!!!! Thank you!!!

[@kennethwayne6857]

I have had this set a few years now and everything you say is right on the money. In years past I used to love Ricciarelli as Micaela, don't know what's happened. Now all I can hear is that every other note is just slightly off-pitch, very distracting. Maybe my ear is better attuned.

[@djquinn4212]

@@kennethwayne6857 Others mentioned the extensive EMI catalogue. I think on the whole, that and Decca are the best representation of Karajan the opera conductor. As great as the Callas butterfly is, the decca one just for sound purposes is the one to own…same with Bohème. But you have to sneak that early Carmen in. I’ve said here and elsewhere though, Aldo Protti doesn’t spoil the Otello the way some people make it out to be, he’s okay. Del Monaco’s performance is one that has to be heard. He and Vickers are the two great stereo sound Otello (don’t come at me Ramon vinay fans, I said stereo). From where I sit, it makes more sense to just get the complete Decca box (if it’s still available) and supplement with the DG stuff individually that’s worth owning.

[@bbailey7818]

I think Baltsa had a better Carmen in her than HvK allows her to be, he thinks the drama is in the pit. You'd think Ricciarelli would have been a fine Micaela but she's schreckliche at every moment. Karajan's best Trovatore and Butterfly are the ones with Callas and not necessarily just because of her. They flow more naturally. More Italianate. Minority report on the Boheme: I think it's bloated and grandiose, I much prefer, in their very different approaches, Beecham or Toscanini, to name only two. Serafin also gets it on Decca with Tebaldi and Bergonzi.But I agree with you about the Aida. And the Ring. In the Parsifal, Moll's Gurnemanz is the best reason to have it along with the sheer sound.

[@The_Jupiter2_Mission]

I always refer to Karajan's Turandot as "A Slow Boat To China". His tempi are so meandering and slow it almost grinds to a complete halt. Nice sonics, though.

[@ljiljanastanic9076]

I love Karajan's operas very much!I will select the most favorites ones althiugh I think the others you mentioned are mostly fantastically wel done..Boris Godunov,a monumental work!!!The Prologue amazes mecas well as the entire orchestration,also all the wonderfully vocals!!The Walkirie-My God,the fantastic Jon Vickers,Gundula Janowitz and the mesmerizing Regine Crespin,me up when she sings hojotohot!!!Simply magnificent!!My opinion is that Karajan's choice of singers was always excellent and Maestro Solti's orhestrations was mostly better!

[@ViardotVSGrisi]

Sumi Jo did an interview a decade or so ago claiming that HVK tried to convince her to record the title role of Norma with him. Her tone was “yeah, he was nuts”. She was smart to keep it moving.

[@eddihaskell]

I generally do not like Karajan. But I do like his Parsifal. It is one of the very best. Parsifal is my favorite Opera btw. Also, he did a recording of Jessye Norman singing Brunhilda's Immolation Scene (Starke Scheite!) from Gotterdammerung with either Berlin or Vienna that can be found on KZbin that is amazing. It is not a complete Opera but beautifully filmed and sung and orchestrated.

[@clementewerner]

Do try his early recording of Cosi Fan Tutte, with Schwarzkop, Merriman, Otto, Simoneau, Bruscantini and Panerai- it is light, fast, and an absolute joy.

[@patrickgroenendijk8434]

A real pity that DG did not include a live Tannhauser that Karajan did in early 1963 in Vienna.

[@donaldjones5386]

Thanks for this but we disagree on "Parsifal'. After many decades it has really hit home with me. I don't know Karajan's recording, but several others are great, including a few by Knappertsbusch. Too bad Karajan never finished the Ring he started at the Met in the late 1960s.

[@kennethwayne6857]

Great review of a box-set that I love! I'm told that Sena preferred her last name pronounced Yoo-REE-natz (for obvious reasons). Hilarious (in a way) regarding the swastika layout in the box. Wonder if there'll be a Schwarzkopf box with the same design.

[@eddihaskell]

You are terrible! I am LMAO!

[@jackhinkley6162]

I happened to watch this video with the captions on which provided some very interesting spelling variants. Thus we get the Korean carry on carrion box and other equally fractured spellings of other names. Nibble onions indeed. So much for AI. Without the captions and with sound this video, for me, was useful and informative. I am not a great opera buff but I do appreciate great singing and it is good to know what Karajan opera recordings are worth seeking out and those that are not.

[@bjornjagerlund3793]

Great to hear that you like Karajan’s Boris Godunov. That was the first recording I had of this opera and it is still the one i prefer listening to. It is great.

[@furrybear57]

Me too as well and thanks to this recording i will always prefer the Rimsky orchestration.

[@CortJohnson]

It’s interesting that these boxes are no longer available. Bernstein is still available. Recently we had to Szell and Ormandy boxes but Karajan - who seemed to me to be the most visible and highly promoted conductor of his time - has faded. The only box I see on Amazon is oddly enough his choral works - Which I think Dave has not reviewed yet???😅😅😅

[@mancal5829]

I don't believe he's particularly looking forward to it.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I did review it. Yech.

[@CortJohnson]

@@DavesClassicalGuide 😊

[@mancal5829]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Indeed. I'd forgotten that. There's just so much Karajan to go around.

[@ronaldswedlund4683]

The next project might be Karajan's complete EMI recordings, issued in two boxes around 2008; a few years later, selected items were issued in a set containing multiple small boxes called something like "Karajan Remastered."

[@jensguldalrasmussen6446]

I think the live Schöpfung from Salzburg should be seen rather as a courteous addenda from DG to the 4 boxes. The studio recording of course is in the 60s box, where the live recording logically would also belong - but if I'm not totally mistaken, the live recording was released first time AFTER the 60s box came out. So neither the boorish lack of logic, often encountered from some publishers, nor a haphazard mishap at play here. As to the performance itself, this live recording of Die Schöpfung is overall, plain and simple: wonderful. Karajan is much fresher, livelier than in the studio. We get Wunderlich all the way through the work at the top of his game - ardent, radiant, lyrical. And a very young Janowitz in glorious, fresh voice and on best behavour what diction concerns. Kim Borg might not quite match Berry/Fisch-Diesk in the studio, but never the less acquits himself with aplomb in one of his better recordings. The studio recording surely deserves its accolades and certainly has its special moments and qualities. However, it's more often than not the Karajan live recording I grab for, when wanting to treat myself to an indeed wondrous rendition of late, devout, but so very humane Haydn at his pinnacle!

[@CB-jx9pw]

Fantastic review! But how was Karajan Bad for singer's voices?? I've heard quite the opposite from many singers who worked with him. How he carried them with the orchestra over particularly difficult moments etc....

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

As he got older, and more domineering, he wanted to work with singers who agreed with his "concept," even if they were not right for the part. There are many, many examples--his Turandot, for example, or Josephine Barstow in Verdi's Ballo (his last opera recording), Helga Dernesch's Wagner, and so forth.

[@furrybear57]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Fun fact: a Gramophone interview from 2003 with Sumi Jo had her admitting Karajan wanted to record NORMA with her in the title role. Of course she turned him down. Can you imagine Sumi Jo as Norma??

[@clementewerner]

I would agree with Dave that the La Boheme, Madama Butterfly, and Boris Godunov recordings are sublime (he could have mentioned Nicolai Ghiaurov, a titanic Boris), and I did learn Das Rheingold from Karajan's set. However, I loathe Jon Vickers and find the Siegfried and Gotterdammerung recordings problematic because of the cast changes, and a poor Siegfried. But then I don't like Solti's Rheingold or Walkure either but think his Siegfried and Gotterdammerung are sensational, so there is no perfect Ring cycle though I do like most of the Sawallisch with Hildegard Behrens. Karajan did superb opera recordings with EMI and Decca as Dave notes, and there are some gems here, but to purchase the whole box when I have the sets I truly want? Nein, danke!

[@cappycapuzi1716]

Freni was one soprano whose voice Karajan didn't ruin, even though she did later Verdi with him, which some question as being right for her.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

She was smarter than he was.

[@xxsaruman82xx87]

7:59 No one else matters? What about Ghiaurov, who actually sings Boris? 😂😂

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Not bad.

[@jaykauffman4775]

If the Otello is the same mastering as the one in the Karajan Decca box or the last two releases (with the ballet music) the sound is awful- there is no bass. The organ pedal at the start which was such a presence on the lps and first cd releases is hardly there. The set can only be heard correctly on the first cd release or the Golden Age of Analogue Blu-ray release

[@GarthAstrology]

Katia Ricciarelli ironically stated "I would sing Scarpia for Von Karajan, I trust him so much." I'm sure she lived to regret those words.