A light comedy with a ridiculous conceit where two guys, one blonde, one with brown hair, sweet talk their way in and out of outrageous situation? Nope, it's not The Internship but Cosi Fan Tutte at the SF Opera, which opened Sunday afternoon. The opera revived the 2005 production (last seen here), freshened up with a few new twists.

Conductor Nicola Luisotti brought a joyous verve from the orchestra, in a shallower pit than usual, to better bring out the sparkly sound of the Mozart-sized ensemble; they sprang brightly out of the gate and never let down. Rather than the usual harpsichord to accompany the recitatives, Luisotti had a small team of harpsichord indeed, but also pianoforte, theorbo, and cello, providing varied harmonic punctuation. They threw in a few the musical jokes and ad libs that Luisotti always enjoys and the opera should stage a game of identifying their musical quotes. Chopin piano sonata? Check. Bach partita? Check. So instead of dull and predictable recitatives, they're full of verve and invention.

Baritone Lucas Meachem stars as Don Giovanni in the Mozart opera currently on stage at the SF Opera (three shows left). Every year we see singers go through the ranks of the Merola and Adler programs. Those programs are like the SF Opera Triple-A affiliates of the major league team and we try each year to guess which singers will come back headlining big new productions. Well, Meachem did big time, landing gigs here, at the Met or at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

The run started two weeks ago and while reviewers agree in their admiration for Lucas' wonderful honeyed tone and his vocal brilliance [and] theatrical panache, we were puzzled by the disturbing stage direction by Gabriele Lavia: Don Giovanni wears the sunglasses of Woody Harrelson in Natural Born Killer and ritualizes and fetishizes his embraces by hiding his victims' face under a white handkerchief. Rather than conjecture emptily on what it all means, we just called and asked Lucas. Guess what, he's quite the charmer indeed.

Don Giovanni belongs to the category of operas that are insubmersible: as long as the cast is able and has a pulse, neither bad staging nor poor set can sink the show. The new production of Mozart's opera, which opened last night, does not particularly enhance the experience, but the singers delivered. And thus, everyone goes home happy with their heads full of Mozart's wonderful tunes.

Don Giovanni is the womanizer-slash-rapist, and former Adler Lucas Meachem takes on the role with a vocal darkness that, unfortunately, seems undermined by the silliness of the stage direction (by Gabriele Lavia). Meachem oozed both a raffish manliness through the power and depth of his baritone, and a suave seduction in his charming serenade Deh vieni alla finestra. His only minor faux pas came in the champagne aria (Fin ch'han dal vino), taken at a tempo a bit too ambitious by Luisotti, where the singer and orchestra had a hard time staying together.

We enjoyed two performances at SF Opera, the 2nd cast of Il Trovatore in the last performance of that run, and Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, which continues for three more performances.

The Abduction from the Seraglio felt like a light palate cleanser after the earlier, headier productions. It's a comedic endeavor, full of Mozart's sparkling grace. The current production at the SF Opera made things even more palatable by translating the spoken text in English, keeping the sung bits in the original German.

Yet, we felt a step down from the bar set thus far this season, both musically and theatrically. Conducting, Cornelius Meister was out of sync with his singers for the performance we attended early in the run. His strings sounded slippery in the overture, as if taken too fast. Some singers, Peter Rose in particular, just could not just find his beat. Both have excuses, since Cornelius, born in 1980, is among the youngest conductors to lead the SF Opera ever, and we knew Rose would later miss a performance due to personal reason. Cornelius will assert himself more as he grows up, we're sure.

The story goes like this: on his return from winning the Trojan war, the king of Crete, Idomeneo gets caught at sea in a storm. Neptune, God of the oceans, lets him go home safely only after Idomeneo vows to sacrifice the first person he meets on land. Of course, the Gods being a facetious bunch, it's his son Idamante who happens to be there. Idomeneo and his legal councel wise advisor Arbace decide to send Idamante away rather than fulfill the pledge. Neptune is not amused, and sends some Godzilla monster to Crete. Idamante goes and kills the monster, an act of courage which earns Neptune's admiration and forgiveness.

Pictures courtesy of SF Opera, by Terrence McCarthy. Genia Kühmeier, Kurt Streit, and Alice Coote from top to bottom.

The bad news: The Don Giovanni we witnessed last weekend seemed too big a task for the Merola program. Sure, the singing was stellar. And Donna Anna, Leporello, and the Don himself were admirably cast. But the cringe-inducing stage direction, as well as the evening's lackluster orchestra, would not let us enjoy the opera. Bummer.

The good news? Mozart stands up well to mistreatment, and the next Merola concert, the Grand Finale of the summer program, will showcase vocalists with showpieces with no aforementioned staging. (Happens on Saturday, August 16.)

Picture of Austin Kness (right) and Ben Wager, by Kirsten Locken/SF Opera