SERIOUS or funny? Don Giovanni can often be heavy going. But Mozart’s ‘dramma giocoso’ has the potential for playful theatre, bordering on the facetious – and Alessandro Talevi’s new production delivers just that. It’s a mish-mash of styles, but humour is never far from the surface.

It makes the title role that much harder to play: we ought not be laughing at a character who abuses the fairer sex so readily. The solution here is to focus the humour on Leporello. Alastair Miles, in checked suit and boater, makes him much more than a servant: a gentleman’s gentleman doubling as lugubrious partner-in-crime, almost upstaging him.

William Dazeley goes through all the motions as Giovanni smoothly enough, but without much electricity. Obviously they cannot both be funny. But with the exception of his admirable serenade, he needs to cut loose and go with the comic flow.

Elsewhere neckties turn into puppets, seen in Punch-and-Judy frames – though the novelty wears a little thin the third time round. There is a fair amount of effortful slinking around in Pink Panther style, as if the audience cannot be trusted otherwise to get the joke.

Talevi’s lively imagination goes to his head when he has Giovanni making snorting pigs of Masetto and his henchmen. By then he has already allowed his designer Madeleine Boyd too long a leash: her unexceptionable set proves adaptable enough, but her costumes confusingly put the nobs into Victorian gear and the plebs into rock’n’roll outfits complete with Elvis quiffs.

Elizabeth Atherton’s Donna Elvira rises above the confusion with touching arias that remind us of the humanity behind the high jinks. Meeta Raval’s Donna Anna recovers from a blustery start to deliver her final aria feelingly. Claire Wild’s peppy Zerlina does her best to cheer Oliver Dunn’s rather muted Masetto. Christopher Turner finds Don Ottavio a hard character to enliven.

Tobias Ringborg conducts with a palpable sense of purpose that keeps the orchestra on its toes. The chorus jives idiomatically. But we need a little less Lavender Hill Mob, a little more finesse.

• Further performances October 17, 20, 26, November 1, then on tour.
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