By Cal
Link: https://play.wiener-staatsoper.at/event/01176d5f-1be6-4b8c-af48-3291bd6a9c69
Available until: Available on demand until 25th April at about 6pm. There is another showing on 26th April followed by another two days on demand.
Don Pasquale is one of those operas where you have to get the balance right. If it’s too slapstick, it’s very difficult to care. If there’s too much emotion in it, it starts to look cruel.
Playing pranks on an idiot who’s getting a bit too up himself is okay. Abusing an old man who’s made the perfectly reasonable decision not to leave his money to his nephew doesn’t sound nearly as good. Luckily, this production gets it right. It would probably be really difficult to watch a production that doesn’t get it right.
Donizetti has great fun musically, giving Norina vocal gymnastics to rival Lucia di Lammermoor’s, but there the similarity ends. Norina is happy and perfectly sane – though whether everyone else will be sane after she’s finished with them is another matter. The music sounds like a comedy and conductor Jesús López Cobos makes the most of the musical jokes.
The creation of the opera was probably nearly as dramatic as the plot. Gaetano Donizetti composed the music for Don Pasquale and for a long time, he was thought to be the librettist too. Giovanni Ruffini was supposed to write the libretto, but Donizetti basically took over the whole thing, Ruffini had a hissy fit and refused to let his name be put on the score. But it was eventually discovered that although Donizetti had contributed a lot of the ideas, it was Ruffini who’d done most of the actual writing and he is now credited as the main librettist.
Director Irina Brook has gone for the annoying but basically loveable old buffoon approach with the character of Don Pasquale and I think that’s by far the best way of doing it. Lots of humour and fun and nothing too evil. This might be an opera, but it doesn’t have the word ‘soap’ at the beginning. Noelle Ginefti-Corbel has created some lovely sets which look completely normal, but they’re perfectly set up for comedy moments. Sylvie Martin-Hyszka has come up with some great costumes for Norina in particular.
Michele Pertusi gets the comedy just right as Don Pasquale. He’s obnoxious enough not to make the trick seem too mean, but at the same time, it’s difficult not to like him because he’s so funny at the same time. It’s also great to see a bass taking such a big and important role. If they can get around all the low notes and bring them out clearly, it’s as beautiful to listen to as any (non-screechy) soprano.
Speaking of
screechy sopranos, there aren’t any in this production. Valentina Nafornita’s
sweet and flexible soprano sounds comfortable and beautiful throughout and
she’s wonderfully cheeky as Norina. It’s another operatic heroine who’s known
as The Merry Widow, but Norina makes that one look quite miserable. She’s full
of fun and energy and Juan
Diego Flórez’s youthful, earnest and lyrical Ernesto will have a job keeping up
with her. Alessio Arduini is also great as the scheming Malatesta, who is
appropriately-named – I’m sure he gives Don Pasquale a few headaches in this
opera.
If anyone still thinks that opera is
depressing and that there’s no such thing as a thin soprano, this performance
will soon change their mind.
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