Casting was consistently strong, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under Joel Revzen managing the score with no audible labor, and stage director John Hoomes using a traditional representational framework for a number of innovations, many successful (and relatively unobtrusive when not).
An unusually brutal tone was established in the opening scene's swordfight: With his opponent dying before him, Don Giovanni cold-bloodedly pulls out a dagger to finish the job. From there, the opera becomes a distilled study in how people live by their own lies. The legendary Don cocoons himself in untruths: He believes staying faithful to one woman deprives the others of his company. His servant Leporello is especially nasty: A willing accomplice, he laughs scornfully at the abandoned girlfriends while fully fathoming the moral horror show unfolding before him. The staging accentuated the physical disparity of short-but-handsome Andrew Garland (Don Giovanni) and tall, unrefined Matt Boehler (Leporello).
The seemingly random arrivals and departures of the other characters were sensibly worked out, aside from some logic lapses in the Act 1 finale. Arias that are often staged as lone soliloquies were more effectively motivated with a relevant character onstage to hear the music's elaborate sentiments.
The use of video seen on a stage scrim was often distracting: You don't need to see a rainbow when Don Giovanni is seducing the peasant girl Zerlina. The crucial final scene had a video Commendatore glowering over the stage - novel but hardly spine-tingling.
The epilogue's twist ending I won't divulge except to say that it was brilliant.
