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Erin Baiano for The New York Times
Peter Hakjoon Kim, left, plays Don Giovanni with Darnell Ishmel.
It was Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” in Spanish Harlem on Friday night, but this time the director Peter Sellars had nothing to do with it. The production at El Museo del Barrio’s intimate Teatro Heckscher was the culmination of Prelude to Performance, a six-week training program for young singers sponsored by the Martina Arroyo Foundation.
The program was founded last year by the New York-born soprano Martina Arroyo, who, after a long career at the Met, is now focusing her attention on nurturing young artists at Indiana University and elsewhere. It offers singers under 35 intense preparation for a particular role. Staged excerpts from Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale,” Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and Verdi’s “Falstaff” were performed on Saturday, and “Don Giovanni” was to be repeated on Sunday with a different cast.
Mr. Sellars’s late-1980’s production cast Don Giovanni as a drug baron in Spanish Harlem, then seedy. Given the impending gentrification heralded by the condos sprouting nearby, it was perhaps appropriate that this staging at the barrio’s museum featured genteel period frocks.
Sets for the small stage consisted mostly of a few plants, columns and a bench, which were shuffled around between scenes. Laura Alley’s direction, unfussy and effective, allowed the young performers (who will have plenty of time in their careers to contend with avant-garde directorial whims) to concentrate fully on singing and acting.
The level of singing and acting varied, but Darnell Ishmel stole the show as Don Giovanni’s hapless servant Leporello. He was commendable for his rich baritone, precise diction and superb comic timing, which kept the enthusiastic audience entertained.
Eleni Calenos sang with a strong, clear soprano and was persuasive as a suffering yet haughty Donna Elvira. She was dignified when Leporello cheekily recounted his master’s conquests in the catalog aria and expressive in “Mi tradí quell’alma ingrata” as she agonized — as women probably always will — over her bad boy’s inexplicable appeal.
Peter Hakjoon Kim, as Don Giovanni, was strongest vocally and dramatically in the second act, most effective alongside Jorge Ocasio’s imposing and well sung Commendatore. Andrea Arias was a coy, girlish Zerlina. The rest of the cast included Alicia Hall Moran as Donna Anna, Luis Emilio Cabrera as Ottavio and Jonathan Spuhler as Masetto.
Though the performance took place indoors, weather interfered, as it has repeatedly this summer. The opera began about 20 minutes late because heavy rain had delayed an orchestra member. After the percussionist raced down the aisle, the conductor, Steven Crawford, began what was — barring the occasional mishap in the brasses or another slip — a lively, taut and polished reading.
This simple and charming production demonstrated that no gimmicks are needed to prove the timelessness of Mozart’s music, which we have heard so much about in this anniversary year.