With Don Giovanni productions placing the opera in nearly every imaginable time and place, this one may be the only one set in wintertime – as if to underscore the underlying chill in its tale of sexual objectification. This modern-dress production by Philipp Himmelmann is full of handsome stage pictures bathed in twilight, wintry blues with most of the cast sensibly bundled up (Leporello in a nerdy plaid jacket), though the Don Giovanni of Erwin Schrott is still dressed for fall in body-hugging black with ample chest hair visible in his unbuttoned shirt. That makes symbolic sense because his character exists in a world apart from everyone else. Besides, who in their right mind would hire Schrott only to obscure his considerable physicality?

This well-shot, telegenic production – that unlike so many knows when to stop when dramatic points are solidly accomplished – underscores the opera’s sexual brutality with pistols and kisses that are literally cheek-by-jowl. If you’ve ever felt sorry for prim Donna Anna, she and Don Ottavio conquer their inhibitions this time around. The great tragic figure is Donna Elvira, sung by Malena Ernman as a creature of greater awareness than the others, dying a thousand deaths during Leporello’s Catalogue aria and bringing that sensibility to all that comes after.

Elsewhere, Anna Netrebko vocally outgrew Donna Anna years back. By no means does she disgrace herself; but as much as one enjoys her full-bodied tone during lyrical sections, you have to turn a blind ear towards her coloratura. Schrott seems to have conquered the pitch problems that have seriously plagued him in the past and oozes his trademark charm. Luca Pisaroni shows why he’s the Leporello of choice these days with a well-moulded baritone, Charles Castronovo sings Don Ottavio’s difficult music with exceptional artistry and Katija Dragojevic is such an all-round alluring Zerlina that she walks off with every scene she’s in.

The main source of provocation is conductor Thomas Hengelbrock, who leads his Balthasar Neumann Ensemble in what might be called a post-Harnoncourt performance, with period performance at its base but proceeding with a not-always-unwelcome tension between the forward-moving melodic line and highly deliberate rhythmic pacing. Hengelbrock’s rhetorical pauses and wild tempo fluctuations go a bit far but, unlike Harnoncourt, he never leaves me puzzled. Even when I don’t agree with what he’s doing, I understand what he’s after, partly because there’s a genuine conceptual interaction between him and the stage action. However, the improvisatory continuo that’s heard pretty much throughout the opera doesn’t add much, and those rogue wind-instrument obbligatos aren’t in any Don Giovanni score or recording that I know.