“Deh vieni alla finestra”, his serenade to the maid on the balcony, is beautifully nuanced, and he is filled with the right kind of frantic urgency in the scene just before the end when he defies the Commendatore (a wonderfully rich, dark sound from Stefan Kocán) and disappears through the stage surrounded by smoke and alarmingly real flames.

His pretty little duet with Zerlina – “Là ci darem la mano” – is very effective in establishing his capacity for seductive charm, and his “Fin ch’han dal vino” is sung with an exciting flourish. Mariusz Kwieczien is a dashing Errol Flynn of a Don, gambolling about with the confidence of one who has played the role many times. There is only a hint of Jeeves and Wooster in the pair’s portrayals: they are of their period, along with the wigs and tricorn hats, but the class tensions between the arrogant aristocrat and the cheeky servant are nicely brought out. Mr Grandage was obviously well aware that this work was listed by the composer as opera buffa, though he could have put more emphasis on the comic aspects. Whatever the case, the staging could be described as safe but intelligent, because the interactions between the characters are particularly well-studied, especially those between Giovanni and his sidekick Leporello. Perhaps the vastness of the New York venue was responsible for such faint-heartedness, or perhaps he did not have the creative freedom he needed on this occasion. This is surprising, because director Michael Grandage came to the Met after really thriving in London at the minuscule Donmar Warehouse as a thoughtful innovator. This production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni has strong acting and immaculate singing, together with a set and costumes that are at once traditional and uninspired.

The metropolitan opera don giovanni