An old-school Don Giovanni: Ildebrando D’Arcangelo stars in LA Opera’s latest production

Last May, the Los Angeles Philharmonic presented Don Giovanni with a vocally and visually strong baritone leading a solid cast in a thoroughly avant-garde production.  Beginning tonight, Los Angeles Opera presents the same opera, with another hunky baritone leading a another solid cast, this time in an unapologetically traditional production.

Judging by Wednesday’s final dress rehearsal at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion (*see caveat below), L.A. audiences probably could not have asked for two more completely different and yet equally valid interpretations of Mozart’s great work within a couple years of each other, yet here they were mere months apart.  For those who were turned off by the stylized psycho-sexual machinations at Disney Hall earlier this year, this old-school rendition will be most welcome.

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