The updating worked innocuously enough and at last night's opening performance, the brilliance of Mozart's masterpiece came through in an easily enjoyable manner. Merrily, Murray-Walsh's period costuming brought some welcome style to the otherwise spare stage. The lighting was effective when it served to artfully underline the action, but the conceit of cranking up the house lights in the final minutes fell jarringly flat. The point it was trying to make was already written into the music with all the emphasis it could ever need.
The cast was mostly young, capable, and committed, with the one standout being Susanna Phillips as Donna Anna. She was both dramatically and vocally compelling, with a soprano that had the right combination of lightness, warmth, and clarity. That was especially true in her "Non mi dir," which conveyed a touching tenderness toward Don Ottavio. As Leporello, the Don's disgruntled sidekick, Matthew Burns showed off a handsome bass-baritone and good comic instincts. Heather Johnson was a pesuasive Zerlina, playing her less as a simple ingénue than as an earthy woman with needs all her own. Joseph Valone was an appealingly hot-headed Masetto and Kimwana Doner was a capable Donna Elvira. The young singer Matthew Plenk does not yet fully command the stage but he showed vocal and dramatic potential as Don Ottavio, growing stronger as the night progressed. Ulysses Thomas was a solid Commendatore, though his voice was over-amplified.
At the center of it all was Christopher Schaldenbrand's Don Giovanni, a role he has sung many times. He certainly has the looks and the vocal gifts for the role, and he put them to admirable use, but his performance still seemed like it was in search of an internal dramatic center. In stalking his feminine prey, he came across less as completely liberated than as completely unhinged, which is not a particularly seductive quality. Conductor Anthony Barrese did fine work in the pit. The opera runs through May 5.
Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com.
