Music Reviews : Behr Conducts ‘Don Giovanni’

There have been some changes for Music Center Opera’s “Don Giovanni” since it opened last week. For one, Randall Behr replaced conductor Lawrence Foster, who had to leave town because of an illness in his family.

The company’s accomplished and experienced resident conductor, Behr manipulated his well-drilled forces expressively, Tuesday at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. His balances restored the strings as the core of the orchestral sound, and provided a generally supportive context for his singers.

Behr underlined some ravishing details--the orchestral whooping in the “Catalogue” aria, the horn echo to Zerlina in “La ci darem,” Donna Elvira’s sighs luxuriantly manifested in the cellos. He kept the accompaniment fully, but unobtrusively, interactive with the stage.

The pace in some of the arias seemed relaxed just a bit, but Behr kept the ensembles fully up to Foster’s crackling, sometimes almost unsingable, tempos. The cast sounded in fine voice, except for Jonathan Mack’s hoarse evasions at the end of “Dalla sua pace.”

More subtle, there is a sea-change in the perception of the piece following an astonishing weekend immersion in the unsavory world of sexual harassment. Such would-be noble sentiments as Don Ottavio’s declaration--after Donna Anna’s highly charged recounting of the Don’s brutal attempted rape of her--that his duty was to prove her wrong or avenge her, drew knowing laughter that wasn’t there when the production opened.

How long can it be until some trendy director stages “Don Giovanni” in the offices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission?