Music overshadows drama in `Don Giovanni’> Beautiful arias abound in traditional production of Mozart classic by Western Opera Theater

He loves them and leaves them. He steals their hearts. He squashes their wills. And then he shamelessly laughs as he reclines on silken pillows and gorges himself with fine foods while he dreams of new ways to ravish women.

What a creep that Don Giovanni is.

How did he make it through so many years of history — through Molina, Moliere, Byron, and, as presented by San Francisco Opera Center’s Western Opera Theater Thursday at the Maine Center for the Arts, through Mozart and his comic opera “Don Giovanni”?

In our own time, the charmer has had a psychological complex named after him and even talk-show maven Sally Jesse Raphael has had a show completely devoted to “Don Juans.” (“Don Juan” is Spanish for the Italian “Don Giovanni,” and, just for the record, “Giovanni” is pronounced Jo-VAHN-nee.)

But in all of his manifestations, Don Giovanni goes for the prize every time. And, in WOT’s traditionally staged version, he also manages to make us laugh at his superabundance of energy for women, even though his story has the makings of a tragedy. There’s something about putting the plot to Mozart’s exhilarating and rich music that makes the actual crimes and braggadocio of Don Giovanni seem insignificant as compared to a marvelous vocal and orchestral display.

That’s not in any way meant to excuse the rogue. When it comes to what he’ll do for sexual satisfaction, he’s a scoundrel from the start. When he tries to rape Donna Anna, kills her elderly father, promises love to Donna Elvira and the peasant Zerlina — not to mention the 2,065 women from around the world, we don’t cheer him on, but we do watch in a kind of chuckling fascination. We might think: “What a day he’s having! Sex, murder, ghosts!”

But Mozart in all his mischievous talent won’t let us take it seriously — even if we have known men, like Don Giovanni, who “love” too much, or women, like Donna Elvira, who “love” the men who “love” too much.

Don Giovanni’s songs, performed with machismo by Scott Hogsed, are so beautiful, after all. Similarly, the dejection of his lovers and their determination to destroy him come through with such exquisite musicality that we can hardly take the plot as heroic.

Donna Anna’s mournful aria, sung with boundless depth and skill by Svetlana Sech, is among the most memorable moments of the three-hour opera. And the harmonies of the humorous servant Leporello (Patrick Blackwell), Anna’s suitor Don Ottavio (William George), Donna Elvira (Colleen Gaetano), Zerlina (Tamara Hardesty) and her fiance Masetto (Nigel Smith) make the horrors of rape, deceit, murder and disloyalty seem so secondary — even though we know that’s not really true. Some of that, of course, is due to the direction of conductor Rodolfo Fischer, who moves the music along at a fast pace. What he, as well as the singers, sacrifice in drama, they make up for in the fresh presentation of the music.

And, at the end, we get to see the horrible execution of Don Giovanni, who is dragged off in shards of red light and clouds of smoke to hell by the vengeful ghost of Donna Anna’s father. “Evildoers never come to any good!” we learn from the chorus that follows Don Giovanni’s destruction. “Sooner or later, they all get what they deserve!” It’s a simple lesson, indeed. And only Mozart could get away with telling it so flamboyantly.