Let's face it, there is only one James Levine and he is the greatest opera conductor the world has ever known. Without him, we miss him, and he is irreplaceable.
That said, it's no excuse for soporific conducting by Fabio Luisi of the world's greatest opera, Don Giovanni. It's one of my two favorite operas, but I found this production a chore to get through, largely because of the conducting. The dull greys and beiges and washed-out browns and blacks of the set and costumes did not help at all.
There is some good singing in here, including Mariusz Kwiecien as a strong Don Giovanni, and the two female leads; but good singing relies on the musicianship of the conductor in order to come alive, and there is none here ... the music just drones on without momentum or intuition or musicality. In fact the only place this version comes alive musically is the finale of Act 1, when everyone and the chorus is onstage and in an uproar. Beyond that, except for the bursting flames of the descent to hell, and a couple of laughs at Leporello, the opera seems to be on life support.
Ramon Vargas seems quite miscast to me as Don Ottavio, who should have a clear pure light and extremely flexible voice, and a light and airy persona as well. In terms of Zerlina, she sings all right but each of her arias weirdly veers into vast ornamentations that are not in the score and are poorly done and that stick out like a sore thumb. Very odd and distracting. Please do not try to re-think the master.
Lastly, the production is beset by miking problems. There's a distinct dead spot across the entire left side of the stage that does not pick up the singers' voices. And not only that, the miking of the entire stage goes on and off distinctly at least three or four times during the opera.
In sum, a lot of problems with this production. I'm going back to recordings, or to Joseph Losey's wonderful 1979 filmized version.