I couldn't disagree more about Karajan's Dutchman. I picked up a CD of highlights, but quickly got rid of it. Karajan's tendency to exaggerate contrasts begins right away with the overemphatic timpani in the overture, followed by the slowest, softest, sleepiest bit from Senta's Ballad ever heard. Dunja Vejzovic was an erratic soprano Karajan used both here and in his Parsifal for reasons I can't fathom, and her Senta shows the same vocal inconsistencies that mar her Kundry and doesn't sound for a moment like a girl in love. Kurt Moll as Daland is fine, but no more "definitive" than, say, Gottlob Frick, who has more character. Van Dam's Dutchman is neatly sung, but microphones can't disguise the fact that his voice is not the real Wagner-hero, bass-baritone thing, and Karajan's thundering orchestra only makes this more obvious. Peter Hoffmann's Erik is, like his Parsifal, strained and unimpressive.
Karajan can be relied on to blow the roof off the place at the big moments, if that appeals, but on the whole this impresses me as another overcalculated, overengineered, undersung, late Karajan studio job.