DON PASQUALE • COPENHAGEN
★★★★★☆
Photo: Miklos Szabo
REVIEW DON PASQUALE: AN OPERA THAT SMILES
Donizetti’s comic opera Don Pasquale unfolds at the Copenhagen Opera in French director Mariame Clément’s playful production from the Glyndebourne Festival — with a melodious international cast and all the buffa that the light-hearted story thrives on.
A cheerful love story with a plot reminiscent of Molière’s and Holberg’s comedies. One is tempted to say that it would have been better suited to the Copenhsagen Grønnegård summer Theatre than the Opera House, where some opera-goers may find the story a little too light. The music is light, lively, melodic and full of rhythmic verve, with humorous orchestral details and bel canto acrobatics with positive energy and vocal charm.
Photo: Miklos Szabo
In terms of repertoire, Don Pasquale stands as a clear counterweight to the Opera’s artistically fascinating, but also clearly narrower, production of The Conversations of the Carmelites, which recently took the elitist opera audience by storm in Barrie Kosky’s fabulous, sombre staging.
Louise McClelland Jacobsen is an absolute delight as Norina, the woman at the centre of attention: beautiful tone, stage presence and impressive vocal technique in the bel canto acrobatics of the score, delivered with great humour.
Photo: Miklos Szabo
The old bachelor Don Pasquale is tricked into marrying the quiet, modest Norina, whom the enterprising fixer Doctor Malatesta has found for him. The beautiful young woman quickly turns out to be a bride from hell, squandering his fortune at a furious pace – all so that Norina and Don’s nephew Ernesto can get together after a series of intricate intrigues, cleverly orchestrated by the doctor, who at times seems to have his own hidden agenda.
It’s all as confusing and silly as in The Marriage of Figaro: the old shouldn’t rule over the young. Donizetti criticises marriages of convenience and celebrates young, true love. The theme is timeless.
Photo: Miklos Szabo
The staging is thoroughly cheerful, with skilful use of the revolving stage, which adds an old-school but not at all silly touch of revue and vaudeville, along with delightful costumes: powdered wigs and ballroom dresses in all shades. As Ernesto, Santiago Ballerini is a delightful acquaintance with his rich, buttery tenor voice, which immediately lifts the mood. Never mind that the coloraturas – despite their qualities – end up a bit monotonous in the long run.
Photo: Miklos Szabo
The orchestra plays with increasing warmth and enthusiasm throughout the evening, and there is a hint of a plot twist: are Norina and Doctor Malatesta (Theodore Platt) having an affair? Are they lovers rather than just conspirators? And are their intrigues directed not only at the ageing Pasquale, but also at his not-too-bright nephew Ernesto?
Don Pasquale (Markus Schwartz) is the target of ridicule and caricature, but is also portrayed at times as a touching, vulnerable and sympathetic figure, whom one actually ends up feeling a little sorry for.
The antics clearly nod to the commedia dell’arte tradition and, in this opera recording, are a well-crafted, low-calorie opera experience that just about deserves five stars.
