No musical collaboration has had the staying power of Lorenzo da Ponte and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The two men collaborated on three operas 250 years ago, and their popularity, if anything, keeps growing.

You can enjoy one Friday evening at the Garde Arts Center and discover why great comedy, great drama and great music ripen with age. The Connecticut Lyric Opera will stage "Don Giovanni," the Mozart-da Ponte take on the Don Juan story, rife with wonderful music and characters and one profound lesson; When you murder someone, don't mock the deceased by inviting him to dinner at your place ... not in an opera at least.

The CLO production, under the baton of Adrian Sylveen leading the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, will include a number of company regulars: Luke Scott, as the scalliwag Don, Jurate Svedaite as Donna Anna, Heather O'Connor as Donna Elivra, Nathan Resika as the Don's man servant (and in many ways, the opera's central character) Leporello, and Stephen Fredericks as the Commendatore. Making her CLO debut will be Emily Hughes as Zerlina.

Seduction, murder, more seduction and revenge from beyond the grave ... with a nice dance thrown in too. You can't beat this.

- MILTON MOORE

Mozart's "Don Giovanni," the Connecticut Lyric Opera, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London; $36-$64; (860) 444-7373, gardearts.org.