Smoke billows in a narrow sliver of light. Everywhere else is darkness — an effective use of chiaroscuro. The orchestra sounds a powerfully ominous D minor cloud. Before he even enters the stage we get the feeling that things won’t go very well for Don Giovanni. 

The Met’s new production of Mozart’s perennial, which debuted on May 5 and runs through June 2, is directed by Ivo van Hove, who seized upon the opera’s original title, “The Rake Punished,” as a key to the darkness of his modern staging.