Last Friday was Mozart Day - 250 years since music's greatest prodigy was born in Salzburg. Opera houses worldwide celebrated the event, but the Opéra national de Paris was particularly keyed up after word went out that there was a scandal in town. The Austrian film director Michael Caché Haneke, known for his bleak and transgressive, even sado- masochistic movies, had come to Paris to direct his first opera. A news blackout increased the thirst for rumour and, as the curtain fell, well-primed TV crews rushed into the auditorium to film the audience baying for his blood.

The audience played its part, perfectly on cue. But where was the scandal? Haneke's production was actually rather an effective updating. It took place at night in the headquarters of a multinational company (great set - thank you, Christoph Kanter, the designer). Don Giovanni was the CEO spinning out of control as too much power and easy access to sex started to fry his brain. Sounds improbable? Try reading the Companies and Markets section more assiduously in future. No - the real problem with this Don Giovanni was the slackness of the performance. The orchestral playing under conductor Sylvain Cambreling was the sort of soggy Mozart one hoped had disappeared decades ago. The recitatives dragged on mercilessly, as endless "meaningful" pauses hammered the drama, and the comedy, for six.