Don Giovanni review – revival does its best, despite clunky staging

Any revival of Jonathan Kent's 2010 Glyndebourne Don Giovanni is fated to be, in part, a battle of music against stage visuals. Paul Brown's ponderous, rotating box-of-tricks set dominates the sparsely lit stage. Its gyrations and unfoldings cramp the performers and diminish any attempt to create dramatic narrative or relationships. If the overall lesson is supposed to be that Don Giovanni is an alienated tale about dark desires, that's not exactly news. Mozart tells us that with far greater impact and economy in the very first chord of the overture.

Yet this revival by Lloyd Wood does its best in these sometimes clunky circumstances. It gets a massive boost from the energised conducting of Andrés Orozco-Estrada, making his Glyndebourne debut with the London Philharmonic in the pit. The Colombian had a sure touch throughout and his handling of the final scene was thrilling. The confrontation with the stone guest also put the cap on a splendidly credible performance of the title role by the Canadian baritone Elliot Madore, who looks the part, magnificently so in his final defiance, and who sang throughout with considerable style and nuance.

Given that they have to fight against the production's tendency to reduce the opera to a series of episodes, the other principals all did well. Among the women, the stand-out vocal presence was Layla Claire, also Canadian, whose Donna Anna revealed a rich dramatic soprano, occasionally hard toned but oozing with class and possibility. Serena Farnocchia was an artful Elvira. Lenka Máčiková was a brightly sung Zerlina, the role deepened in this production, which follows Mozart's 1788 Vienna version, by her suggestive duet with Leporello.

Among the men, Edwin Crossley-Mercer was a well acted Leporello in the modern manner, louche and opportunist, eschewing the vocal bonhomie that once went with the role. Ben Johnson, a light-voiced Don Ottavio, does what he can with the character, though the scope is reduced by the loss of his second aria. Brandon Cedel captures Masetto ideally, while Taras Shtonda is an imposing flesh-and-blood Commendatore.

Until 1 August. Box office: 01273 813813. Venue: Glyndebourne, Lewes