Every year, Opera Australia sends a troupe of singers and musicians around the country to present operatic classics in compact form. Its touring productions are fully staged and employ some of the company’s best singers, although instead of having a full orchestra they bring along a small group of musicians – typically around a dozen.

Not often do we in South Australia get to sample these productions, but this is due to how Co-Opera already very successfully serves this State’s regional locations with compact opera shows of its own. But this year is a special one for the national company. Opera Australia is celebrating 30 years of touring, and Tanunda was the lucky town to see its seven-week tour of Don Giovanni first.

Those who could make opening night were well rewarded. Director Michael Gow’s stripped-down production of Mozart’s dramma giocoso won fine praise at its premiere in 2012, and this revival is brilliant right up to its fiery end.

Gow winds the story forward by three centuries, turning its original setting in 16^th-century Seville into a 1950s Federico Fellini-inspired Italian street corner of crumbling decay and high fashion. Set and costume designer Robert Kemp cleverly hides all the grubby hotel’s goings-on behind closed doors. Outside, swanky travellers mix with local folk, and the atmosphere feels authentic: librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte’s conception of the villainous Don Juan immediately jumps into life.

The only mismatch was the venue itself. Brenton Langbein Theatre, for 30 years the showpiece of Tanunda’s Faith Lutheran College, is hardly a place for moral promiscuity. But the whole point about Don Giovanni is that fate catches up with the rascal anyway. After bedding innumerable women and causing all kinds of grief, the legendary narcissist finally gets his just desserts. A couple of cans of petrol and a lighted match send him off to where he belongs.

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If ever an opera deserves to win hoorays – if done well – it is Don Giovanni. All the ingredients are right in Gow’s production: in terms of dramatic impact, it follows Da Ponte and Mozart’s masterpiece to the letter and sends everybody off with a clean conscious of justice righted.

The casting is terrific and the singing top rank. Christian Haotian Qi is a surprisingly mild and perhaps even disturbingly likeable Don Giovanni. Vocally, this talented graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music is smooth and suave but has a human quality. He is no narcissistic monster. Serenading yet another female conquest in ‘Deh, vieni alla finestra’ (Ah, come to the window) in Act 2, he does so with such apparent sincerity that all past misdemeanours seem irrelevant. But therein lies the deliberate trap of this opera, because even feeling a tiny bit sorry is where narcissism wins.

Intriguingly, we learn more about the Don through his surrounding witnesses – which may explain further why Mozart excels in ensemble opera. On his own, Don Giovanni possesses all the charm in the world in Haotian Qi’s characterisation. The Chinese-born baritone delivers the boastful ‘Champagne Aria’ (all 90 seconds of it) with great alacrity, temporarily stealing attention away from what everyone else thinks of this awful protagonist.

His long-suffering manservant, Leporello, is wise to every deception, and even says so right to his face in Scene 2 (“Well then, my dear master, the life you are leading is that of a scoundrel”). Australian-Sri Lankan baritone Kiran Rajasingam is highly convincing in the role, winning the audience over to every dirty secret.

Another key role is Donna Elvira. Wedded to the Don in what turns out to be a sham marriage lasting only three days, she cannot believe his deceit and hunts him down to make him pay. Perth soprano Chelsea Burns adds all the venom this opera needs, lashing out with a vituperative tongue. Her sharp-edged tone and wide vibrato at first seem wrong for Mozart – until it all makes sense.

Another outstanding singer is Benjamin Del Borrello as Masetto, also from Perth. Playing the volatile fiancé of Zerlina who is raced off her feet by you-know-who, he responds with emotion to kill. Meanwhile, Zerlina is most excellently sung by Cathy-Di Zhang: her clear, light soprano and vivacity make her a natural fit for Mozart.

Completing a top-shelf cast are Celeste Lazarenko as Donna Anna and Tomas Dalton as Don Ottavio. Additional praise goes to Eddie Muliaumaseali’i as the Commendatore. One of Opera Australia’s backbone singers for more than three decades, the New Zealand-born singer’s booming bass sends shudders through this production. As the murdered father of Donna Anna, he returns from the dead to sup with the Don, and his basso profundo reaches down seemingly forever with incredible solidity. Muliaumaseali’i is every bit the equal of the legendary Kurt Moll in this role.

With singers like this, Gow’s production is impressively classy. It is only the small orchestra that raises questions. Sure, one ideally wants three trombones to accompany the Commendatore’s dramatic appearances as Mozart intended, but an expert 11-piece ensemble makes up for this in colour. Simon Bruckard takes a large chunk of credit for the whole performance. As conductor, accompanist and arranger, he guides everything along with powerful dynamism. His own playing on synthesiser keyboard (entirely forgivable for a touring show) adds wonderful swish and speed.

A lovely touch in this tour is how crowd scenes are taken by young singers. At each stop, Opera Australia picks up a different local choir, and this one was full of glee. Ably prepped by choir leader Mel Craford, 15 young Barossa Valley girls and boys lifted this performance to smiling heights.

The only cause for concern was the Brenton Langbein Theatre’s extremely dry acoustic. One sensed many times that the singers were forced to work harder to project their voices and synchronise with the musicians in the pit. A solution for this otherwise fine venue, named in honour of one of Australia’s finest musicians, would be to install acoustic reflectors and diffusers. Hosts of concert halls and theatres have these nowadays, notably Sydney Opera House’s the newly renovated Concert Hall. Time to follow suit.

Opera Australia’s Don Giovanni was performed at the Barossa Arts Centre, Tanunda on Friday July 17