Austria: Salzburg.

The Salzburg Festival went hog wild over Mozart's 250th anniversary and presented all 22 of his stage works this past summer. That meant dusting off more than a few scores: Betulia liberata and La finta semplice hadn't been heard in Salzburg since 1965 and 1960 respectively. Other mothballed rarities such as Lo sposo deluso, L'oca del Cairo and Zaide were presented in over-priced, Euro-trash productions. Of course, there were staples such as Die Zauberflote and Le nozze di Figaro. The latter was a cash cow: seven sold-out performances in the newly inaugurated Haus fur Mozart with a top ticket price of 400-600 Euros ($570-$860) to hear Anna Netrebko as Susanna.

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And then there were the revivals, such as Martin Kusej's productions of Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito. This was the third mounting of his Don Giovanni, which last played the Grosses Festspielhaus in 2003. Its message hadn't changed. The giant scrim (upon which were painted five women lying on their stomachs clad only in pantyhose) said it all: size matters and sex sells. Behind the scrim, designer Martin Zehetgruber's huge, revolving white carousel (something like a mammoth lazy Susan) provided the locale for the action. At several spots in the production, the carousel would rotate to display frozen tableaux. For example, during the Catalogue Aria, Kusej filled the carousel's compartments with a bevy of young women in white bras and panties, plus one, wearing only red panties, shaving her legs.

There was also some silly stage direction from Kusej. Giovanni only pretended to eat at the banquet, while Leporello pretended to pour him some wine. At the dinner, the Commendatore, dressed in a tux and bow tie, was seated at a table. He eventually exited without taking Giovanni with him. Leporello held Giovanni's hand in a futile attempt to prevent him from following. Giovanni didn't disappear into some infernal flame, but collapsed onto the ground.

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The Aug. 15 performance didn't have the energy or drive I had sensed in 2003. Granted, you couldn't get a handsomer Giovanni than Thomas Hampson, who, it must be said, was in much better voice this time around. Yet his Giovanni was a suave, if at times laid back, cad. Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, too, didn't come off with the same flair. Luca Pisaroni reprised his role as Masetto in fine fashion. However, Melanie Diener (Donna Elvira) walked through her part and unfortunately smudged the rhythm at the end of "Mi tradi."

Among the returnees from 2003, only soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian upped the ante on her character. She invested Zerlina with playful sensuality, sensitivity and cunning. Vocally, she has added some wonderful colors to her voice in the last three years, and she put them to good use.

In 2003, Kusej had Netrebko as Donna Anna. This year, he had Christine Schaefer, who still has a wonderful top register, but had pitch problems during her opening entrance. As Don Ottavio, Piotr Beczala's voice was full, though sounded a touch forced in "Dalla sua pace." Robert Lloyd was an effective Commendatore, replacing an indisposed Kurt Moll.

In the pit, Daniel Harding passed over many details in the score. His tempi, too, were askew--he was either too fast or too slow The Vienna Philharmonic responded to him with a hard-edged tone.

Kusej ended his three term as head of the Salzburg Festival's drama department with a revival of his La clemenza di Tito from 2003. This was a modern staging: not a toga in sight, nor a mention of the Vesuvius Relief Fund in the heavily abridged recitatives, but oddly enough, plenty of "tourists" who wandered about taking pictures of a stone-faced Tito seated on a bed during the "Marcia" of Act I.

I first heard Canadian tenor Michael Schade as Tito in Kusej's production on August 19, 2003. He was on stage, but due to a vocal ailment, sang only the recits and mouthed the words to the arias sung by Jonas Kaufmann from the orchestra pit. Three years later to the day, amid Jens Kilian's massive, four-storey, concrete-gray constructivist palace, Schade was in superb voice. His rendition of Tito's Act II aria, "Se all'impero," with all of its brilliant coloratura, was a thrilling moment. Tito, like Tamino, has become one of Schade's signature roles. Here was a powerful portrayal that captured the ruler's indecisiveness, as well as his neuroses (spitting on his hands to clean away imaginary blood) and, ultimately, his overriding noble character in the wake of a power struggle.

Like Schade, soprano Vesselina Kasarova was a returnee from the 2003 cast. Her rendition of Sesto's Act II rondo, "Deh per questo istante solo," was a brilliant tour de force. Dorothea Roeschmann, also a returnee, gave a fine performance as Vitellia. Due to Barbara Bonney's mysterious withdrawal from this production (and her singing career), Aleksandra Kurzak was brought in to sing Servilia. However, after appearing in concert at the Mozarteum earlier in the day, she was replaced in this performance by Argentinean soprano Veronica Cangemi, who sang "S'altro che lacrime" to tender effect.

Swedish mezzo Malena Ernman (Annio) botched her first recitative (singing the beginning of her second recitative) before catching herself and restarting after an awkward moment of silence. Luca Pisaroni was a hardy-sounding Publio. The Concert Association of the Vienna State Opera Chorus, prepared by Andreas Schueller, was excellent. The Vienna Philharmonic played well, but not perfectly, under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who bowed out of La clemenza after one further outing.