By John Ardoin

Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the role of the Don as well as Leporello.

Anyone who has seen Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" is well aware of the bickering and sparring that goes on between the Don and his servant, Leporello.

Don Giovanni verbally abuses and makes fun of Leporello, yet it is obvious the Don is dependent upon him not only to catalogue his amorous conquests, but as his alter ego. Leporello, on the other hand, accepts the abuse because he lives vicariously through the Don and envies his escapades.

What this remarkable

Leporello (Hvorostovsky) and Donna Elvira (Dunn-Prosser).

film -- conceived and directed by Barbara Willis Sweete -- does is to create a fantasy trip in which Leporello is given a chance to exchange places with the Don, showing us that the two characters are actually different sides of the same coin. In taking a new, condensed look at this classic tale, Ms. Sweete took her cue from the opening scene of Act II of Mozart's "dramatic comedy," as he styled the work. This is the moment when the Don goes wooing the maid of his former lover, Donna Elvira. He exchanges his hat and cloak with Leporello so that Leporello (now disguised as the Don) can lure Elvira away, leaving the coast clear for the Don (posing as Leporello) to pursue the maid.

To underscore this incident, and in turn the theme of the film, both roles -- Don Giovanni and Leporello -- are taken by the same singer: Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Further, Ms. Sweete casts Leporello as the film's host and sets the proceedings in a projection room, with Death as the projectionist. Leporello shows the other characters in the opera a black-and-white film of himself as the Don. This conceit allows him to deliver his lines as well as those of the Don in their shared scenes.

Leporello (Hvorostovsky) consumed by flames.

It is a brilliant idea, though a difficult one to convey entirely with words. But it all becomes immediately clear in the first few minutes of this absorbing film. And, of course, the inevitable happens -- having taken on the Don's persona, Leporello has also condemned himself to the Don's fate -- the fires of damnation in the opera's last scene. As the Don burns in hell, the projection room breaks open, and the screen and Leporello are consumed by the blaze as well. Leporello may have had his revenge, but he pays a dear price for exchanging places with the Don.

Joining Mr. Hvorostovsky is the orchestra of the Canadian Opera Company conducted by Richard Bradshaw, and singers Alain Coulombe (Masetto), Michael Colvin (Don Ottavio), Dominique Labelle (Donna Anna), Barbara Dunn-Prosser (Donna Elvira), and Krisztina Szabó (Zerlina).