There are so many ways to play the title character in Mozart's Don Giovanni. Bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni knows this firsthand because he's been in 120 performances spread over 13 different productions.

Now the international opera star is about to do it again as he heads up the Houston Grand Opera cast to take on the role of the classic philanderer, an amoral man who believes none of his actions have lasting consequences, until right at the end when he learns they do.

Why would Pisaroni want to continue to perform this role of at best an anti-hero but at worst someone audiences love to hate?

"This role is too important to ignore," Pisaroni says. "It's a great role. Don Giovanni has an aura of mystery and there is an historical relevance, a vocal and acting challenge that as an artist and a singer you cannot ignore."

In just the first scene, servant Leporello, assigned to keep watch while his master is up to no good, complains to himself about Don Giovanni while he stands watch during the libertine's latest attempt at a romantic conquest. Don Giovanni is inside the Commendatore's house trying to seduce Donna Anna, the Commendatore's daughter. Suddenly a masked Don Giovanni flies out of the house with Donna Anna in pursuit trying to make his escape but the Commendatore shows up and demands they fight.  Don Giovanni kills him and Donna Anna forces her fiancé Don Ottavio to swear vengeance.

In quick and sure fashion, libbretist Lorenzo Da Ponte  aided mightily by Mozart's evocative score, establishes three critical elements: Don Giovanni is a cad. His behavior is so bad that his own servant wishes to be rid of him. And there will be a price to pay.

Other cast members include bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as Leporello; soprano Andriana Chuchman as Donna Anna; tenor Kang Wang in his HGO debut as Don Ottavio; mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Donna Elvira; and soprano Erika Baikoff in her company debut as Zerlina. Greg Eldridge serves as revival director for Kasper Holten’s production, with Dame Jane Glover conducting.

"Giovanni for me is a challenging role because everybody has a different opinion of what is seductive and what is charming. When you play seductive somebody says it's not dangerous enough. If you play dangerous, it's not seductive enough, it's not charming enough. So it's really hard to find let's say a balance,"  says Pisaroni.

"At the beginning you can think oh, he's a womanizer; he's having fun. And then throughout the years you realize there are certain questions that are much deeper. Especially in this production. At the beginning there is no rape. This changes a lot in my opinion."

In almost comic fashion, after Don Giovanni and his former lover Donna Elvira recognize each other, Don Giovanni orders Leporello to tell her the truth about his master and his conquests (the famous aria "Madamina il catalogo e questo"). Leporello recounts Don Giovanni's seduction exploits which involve 640 women and girls in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, 91 in Turkey, but in Spain, 1,003. Donna Elvira is not amused; she too vows vengeance.

Without any apparent crisis of conscience,  Don Giovanni is next seen attending a peasant wedding where he tries to seduce the bride Zerlina on her wedding day. As the opera builds, an increasing number of people vow to have their revenge on him. Donna Elvira unsuccessfully pleads with him to change his ways. The Commendatore now in statue form, returns and extracts his vengeance.

"Don Giovanni is obsessed with seduction. He needs to be," Pisaroni says. "The challenge for him is to seduce women in this endless search for a soulmate. somebody who would complete him and make him feel whole. And that's what I like about him.

"There's also a component that in this production that is really nice. For example in the duet with Zerlina there is almost no physical contact. Why? Because, I think the challenge for him is 'Can I make somebody else fall in love with me again?' He really tries to do it in a way that he can be really proud of what he has achieved. I really think it is very clever this production."

Another component important to  Pisaroni is that "Don Giovanni challenges the rules of the society. He's somebody who stands up for himself. 'I won't allow  society to impose a set of rules.' In the final scene when he meets the Commendatore, the supernatural, you can look at it as a religious part of the piece but if you don't look at it as a religious  you can look at it more as him being confronted with a higher power, society, rules and says 'I will not repent and 'I will do what I feel is my right to do.'"

This production ends with the death of Don Giovanni; it does not include the moral of the story coda. "The journey of Don Giovanni is a personal journey. At the end it is him confronted with himself, " says Pisaroni who thinks this is the right approach.

When it was composed Don Giovanni had to shock audiences, the concluding ensemble would reassure audiences in 1787 that bad people get their just desserts. Besides the story line, the music was considered revolutionary at the time, Pisaroni says.

"That's the amazing thing about this repertoire. Every time you get close to it you realize how profound the music is  and how modern it is compared to what we were hearing at hat time."

Other cast members include bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as Leporello; soprano Andriana Chuchman as Donna Anna; tenor Kang Wang in his HGO debut as Don Ottavio; mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Donna Elvira; and soprano Erika Baikoff in her company debut as Zerlina. Greg Eldridge serves as revival director for Kasper Holten’s production, with Dame Jane Glover conducting.

As for the music, "It's vocally challenging. It's challenging to remember everything that Mozart wrote and to do all the colors and the dynamics that Mozart requires. It's challenging because I believe Don Giovanni is a chameleon. He has different colors for different women, for different situations. The way he speaks to Donna Elvira and the way he speaks to Zerlina that is a lower level in the social structure that is different. So it is a challenge to portray all these different facets of the character," Pisaroni says.

"The challenge for me is to really listen and when I move it has to have power and energy and meaning and edge and force."

The women in the opera are archetypes, he says, You have Donna Anna which is the innocent young girl that he tries to to seduce. and represents like the dream of a woman that Don Giovanni has. Don Giovanni thinks how my life could have been if I were not the narcissist, egocentric that I am. We would have had a chance. But unfortunately I am not the person that you are looking for.

"Dona Elvira is an incredible modern woman. She leaves her hometown to go after him to say 'You made me fall in love' and might even be pregnant. So she's really modern for the times and travels to look for the man. She's the really strong woman that Don Giovanni is faced with. Donna Elvira has such an inner strength. She tries to rescue him until the end and then gives up because she realizes that she cannot save him because he doesn't want to be saved.

"And Zerlina is the idea of this naive girl from another social class. He loves that he can impress her with his castle, the money that he has, the richness that he has."

Asked how he got into opera, Pisaroni responds: "On a really hot summer when I was a boy my grandfather had a collection of opera. I heard bass from Bulgaria called Boris Christoff singing the aria from Don Carlo.  And from that moment I thought how is it possible that a human voice can produce these kinds of sounds. I started having singing lessons. I was lucky enough to have a voice."

This is the fourth time Pisaroni has been to Houston, debuting in 2911 as the Count in Figaro, as Mephostophiles in Faust and in 2019 the Phoenix world premiere where he played the young Lorenzo Da Ponte..

Asked for his favorite music he likes to sing, Pisaroni surprises.

"If I could go back in time. I would pay anything to be one member of the Rat Pack. The meaning for me that crooner Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., that had such a charming period. It was such an honest way of singing. And it was so for me. I am in love with Frank Sinatra. He was such a musician. If I could go back in time I'd be in a club where people are drinking on tables listening to this kind of music. "

"The most challenging thing in opera to be not just a machine that produces sounds. The challenge for myself and the young singers is we have a voice to tell a story and to express emotions. It's not just about how loud it is, how long you can keep a note, it's about can you move the audience."

Performances are scheduled for April 19 through May 3 at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturday and Wednesday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Wortham Center, 501 Texas. Sung in Italian with projected English translation. For more information, call 713-228-6737 or visit hgo.org. $25-$210.