Since all four of last month’s Opera is ON free opera streams provided by the San Francisco Opera (SFO) were devoted to the entirety of Richard Wagner’s four-opera cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen (the ring of the Nibelung), it seemed fitting that this month begin with some comic relief. That relief was provided by Don Pasquale, the third and last of Gaetano Donizetti’s best-known comedies. (Donizetti was impressively prodigious in both comedy and tragedy, but I must confess to a strong personal preference for the comic side.)
Maurizio Muraro in the role of Don Pasquale (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)
The plot is a straightforward one: The title character, sung by bass Maurizio Muraro, is an old man whose body has definitely seen better days, who decides that life would be better with a young wife. His physician, Dr. Malatesta (baritone Lucas Meachem), has a younger sister, Norina (soprano Heidi Stober); and he convinces Pasquale that she will make the perfect match. However, Norina’s heart belongs to Pasquale’s (much) younger nephew Ernesto (tenor Lawrence Brownlee). Malatesta knows this but is determined to teach Pasquale a lesson about old men and young women.
At the end of the first act, Norina has become Pasquale’s wife. However, Malatesta has revealed his designs to Ernesto, who becomes one of the agents of his machinations. Basically, Norina starts making Pasquale’s life a living hell as soon as the ink on the marriage contract has dried. Indeed, there is so much chaos in Pasquale’s house that, as the curtain rises on the second act, the set for his house has been turned upside down. (Score one for visual metaphors.) Needless to say, by the end of the final act, Pasquale is ready to go back to bachelor life. Nevertheless, Norina gets away with a healthy cash settlement, allowing her to live happily ever after with Ernesto.
The way the house is handled in the set design is just one of an abundance of sight gags that keep the narrative moving at a quick and enjoyable pace through the stage direction conceived by Laurent Pelly. This was his second SFO venture into Donizetti comedy, the first having been that composer’s La fille du régiment (the daughter of the regiment). Pasquale was staged for the fall 2016 season, while fille was performed in the fall of 2009. Between them, in the spring of 2013, Pelly staged Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, with a much darker scenario. Pelly also designed the costumes for Pasquale, and I suspect that included giving Ernesto a hair style that had “Little Richard” written all over it.
Most important, however, was how Pelly kept the plot advancing at breakneck pace. He clearly understood that situation comedy only works when the situations hold the attention of the audience. There may have been one or two lapses when things were not hurtling forward, but they never stayed around for very long.
On the musical side conductor Giuseppe Finzi maintained a consistent balance between activities on stage and those in the orchestra pit. This opera has one of those overtures in which two key themes subsequently emerge as arias. The better known of these is “Com’è gentil” (how lovely), which Ernesto sings in the final act while waiting for Norina. Brownlee could not have given an account that was more convincing or more musical. It is easy to appreciate that this was a high point of his Delos Allegro io son album of bel canto arias by both Donizetti and Vicenzo Bellini. (it is also worth noting that the theme for “Com’è gentil” was given an equally moving cello solo account by Thalia Moore at the beginning of the overture.)
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