http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/arts/music/don-giovanni-at-the-metropolitan-opera-review.html

Reckless in Seduction, if Not Onstage

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Since becoming the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in 2006, Peter Gelb has made it a priority to persuade strong, successful directors from theater and film to take on major new productions. And why not? Opera is theater. In theory, gifted directors who are mostly new to opera should bring fresh, bracing perspectives to bear.

But there is just as much of a chance that a newcomer to opera might be deferential in approaching the complex, much debated and ceaselessly produced masterpieces of the repertory. What else would explain the timidity of the Met’s new production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” a quite traditional staging by the hot, innovative British theater director Michael Grandage in his Met debut, which opened on Thursday night?

The musical performance was excellent. Fabio Luisi, the Met’s recently appointed principal conductor, drew buoyant, nuanced and effortless playing from the orchestra and splendid singing from an impressive cast. He also provided nimble harpsichord accompaniments during the recitatives, which enhanced the organic shape and flow of the performance.

In fairness, it is perhaps premature to assess this production, since Mr. Grandage had to cope with the crisis of losing his Don Giovanni, Mariusz Kwiecien, during Monday’s dress rehearsal. A hearty young Polish baritone and a terrific actor, Mr. Kwiecien, who considers Don Giovanni his calling-card role, was scheduled to sing it for the first time at the Met in this production. During Monday’s dress rehearsal, however, he injured his back and was taken to the hospital for surgery on a herniated disc. (The Met announced on Friday that he would return to the role on Oct. 25, the fourth performance in the run.) On Monday his cover, Dwayne Croft, stepped right in and, from all reports, sang very well.

But the charismatic Swedish baritone Peter Mattei, an acclaimed Don Giovanni who will sing the role in a new production at La Scala in December, happened to be appearing in Rossini’s “Barbiere di Siviglia.” Mr. Mattei is becoming a Met star. So Mr. Gelb lifted him from “Barbiere” and asked him to sing Giovanni. For two days, instead of having time off, the cast attended emergency rehearsals where Mr. Mattei was worked into the concept and blocking. He performed on Thursday without having had a stage rehearsal with the orchestra. And he was superb, singing alternately with suave, seductive phrasing and menacing intensity. At 6-foot-4, he was lordly, cagey, heady with desire and glibly reckless.

Still, during weeks of rehearsals this production had been shaped around another Giovanni. It is impossible to know how much the last-minute casting shuffle affected Mr. Grandage’s intentions.

Though there is a place at the Met, of course, for traditional productions, there is nothing particularly gripping about Mr. Grandage’s work here. The set by Christopher Oram, in his company debut, consists mainly of a large, curved sliding wall with three tiers of balconies and slatted-wood doors. The effect is like that of those old Advent calendars that count down the days to Christmas: various doors open, and characters pop out.

During the “Catalog Aria,” as Leporello, Don Giovanni’s beleaguered servant, reports the astonishing tally of his boss’s conquests, the wall divides, and we see an inner curved wall of balconies, with groups of young women in every alcove: a human panorama of Giovanni’s lovers. It was an amusing and resonant, if not remarkable, touch.

The best use of the three-tiered back wall comes in the graveyard scene late in Act II. In the alcoves are rows of statues of ominous, gray-hooded men, including a huge statue of the Commendatore, the father of Donna Anna, who lost his life in a duel trying to rescue his daughter from Giovanni’s forced advances.

The period costumes, also by Mr. Oram, all in shades of russets, earthy browns and grays, are tasteful though a little dull. On its own terms, the production represents smart, clean, effective work. And by his strategic placement of characters and use of extras, Mr. Grandage helps to clarify this complex story.

But Mr. Gelb has pledged to bring the best in contemporary theatrical achievement to the Met. This does not mean that every production should be updated. Whatever its merits, though, Mr. Grandage’s “Don Giovanni” is not as striking, insightful and vivid as the sexy, modern production that Christopher Alden created for New York City Opera in 2009 (though who knows when or where audiences will see the Alden version again, now that City Opera is nomadic).

Of course, a director’s most important task in a production is helping the singers to develop their characters and become a team. This Mr. Grandage did very well.

The bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni was a dynamic Leporello, singing with a muscular voice, rich colorings and agility. Handsome and full of bluster, this youthful Leporello exuded resentment while bowing to his master’s commands. But for the accident of birth, Mr. Pisaroni’s Leporello would be the nobleman and lady-killer. And there was some intriguing sexual tension in Giovanni’s roughhousing with his servant.

Mr. Grandage breaks no new ground in his presentation of Donna Elvira as a noblewoman unhinged by her lingering desire for Giovanni. She first appears looking uptight in a fine, feathered hat, sneaking a shot of brandy from a flask. The soprano Barbara Frittoli brought welcome dignity to her portrayal, however, through her honest, ardent and soaring singing.

In her Met debut the striking Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka was a winning Donna Anna, singing with a clear, bright sound and cool intensity. As Don Ottavio, Donna Anna’s patient husband-in-waiting, the veteran tenor Ramón Vargas won big ovations from the audience for both of his arias: a mellifluous “Dalla sua pace,” and a neatly executed, elegant “Il mio tesoro.”

The rising German soprano Mojca Erdmann, in her Met debut, was a sweet-voiced and beguiling Zerlina, the country maiden engaged to the stalwart Masetto, here the hearty bass Joshua Bloom in an endearing performance.

In the final scene the strong bass Stefan Kocan as the Commendatore was suitably avenging as the singing statue who comes to bring Giovanni to justice (though Mr. Mattei towered over him). In this production’s one theatrically daring touch, real flames shoot up from the floor around Giovanni’s dinner table as we watch him descend into hell.

Still, that stage trick came too late to alter the impression of a production with no compelling point of view. This “Don Giovanni” almost makes you yearn for those new stagings where the creative team is booed on opening night. Mr. Grandage and his team received respectful applause.