Robert Carsen's production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which very successfully opened the 2011-12 season, came back earlier this month for a long run, again meeting the audience’s favor, if one judges by the high attendance at all the performances. The production was revived by the stage director himself, who also made some minor changes, and remains very compelling.

Thomas Hampson, the current Don Giovanni, sits in a box when the conductor comes in and he realizes he has to jump on stage. He pulls down the curtain, and uncovers a mirrored wall, which reflects the interior of the theater with the surprised audience. The theater itself provides the setting for the whole opera. A system of sliding sets representing various parts of the theater (the boxes, the curtain) covers and uncovers parts of the action.

As in the original, sex remains in the foreground. So, Don Giovanni is caught in bed with Donna Anna, who pretends to reject him while clinging to him and kissing him passionately. Elvira comes in with a servant carrying two giant suitcases, trying to find her way on a map. When she sees Don Giovanni she forgets all other matters and immediately starts undressing. Zerlina is also eager to have sex, whether with the Don or with her husband Masetto. He would be equally interested if it were not for Zerlina’s changing attitude. Even worse is the fate of Don Ottavio, with Donna Anna pushing him to revenge her father, but then rejecting him even when the Don disappears.

But has he really disappeared? At the very end of the opera, when all other characters have joined to comment upon his disappearance, the main protagonist comes back, quietly pacing on stage sporting a sarcastic smile. The smoke of hell rises from below and envelops the others.

As Don Giovanni, baritone Thomas Hampson fit perfectly well into the production: a skilled philanderer, who knew how to look passionate when needed, he remained somewhat detached from the absorbing passion that dominated the others. Bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni, Hampson’s real life son in law, as Leporello still looked surprised at his master’s deeds, though knowing him well. Tenor Bernard Richter was a noble and upright Don Ottavio, too far from real life to understand his fiancée’s true desires. The latter was Hanna Elisabeth Müller, who molded her superb soprano to express a variety of contradictory feelings fighting in her soul. Soprano Anett Fritsch was a hysterical and harassing Donna Elvira, who couldn’t part from Don Giovanni in spite of all his misbehavior, while Giulia Semenzato was a youthful and cunning Zerlina, perfectly matched by Mattia Olivieri as her naive partner Masetto. The cast was completed by bass Tomasz Konieczny, a stentorian Commerndatore.

The orchestra was accurately conducted by the Estonian Maestro, Paavo Järvi making his house debut, with the recitativi accompanied by cembalist James Vaughan. A largely international audience filled the house at all performances, cheering all the singers after most arias and at the end of the performance.