Don Pasquale

by Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Giovanni Ruffini and Donizetti

seen at Covent Garden on 21 October 2019

Evelino Pidò conducts Bryn Terfel as Don Pasquale, Markus Werba as Doctor Malatesto, Ioan Hoteo as Ernesto and Olga Peretyatko as Norina in Damiono Michieletto's new production of Don Pasquale, designed by Paolo Fantin.

The opera presents a light-hearted view of the perennial conflict between age and youth, as the young lovers Ernesto and Norina, aided by their friend Doctor Malatesto, outwit Ernesto's tyrannous uncle Don Pasquale. The older man, rich and unmarried, is ripe for ridicule in the comic tradition, while Norina is the typical wily young woman, Ernesto the lovelorn dreamer, and Malatesta the catalyst for comic reversals of fortune.

Bryn Terfel gives a wonderful performance as Don Pasquale, preening, lecherous, self-involved, ultimately chastened, while Olga Peretyatko's Norina is all brilliance as an ambitious and pert photographer's assistant whose inner shopaholic is revealed as soon as she has money at her disposal. Ioan Hoteo has less to do with a rather pallid foil in Ernesto, but he sings very well, and Markus Werba is a somewhat seedy doctor whose machinations drive the story forward.

However, even as the music sparkles and delights, it also draws character, and the easy stereotypes are somewhat complicated, not to say compromised, by unexpected psychological insights. In particular, the Don is not only a figure of fun, but also a self-deluded older man who can still show enough humility to learn a lesson; and Norina shows a slight compunction at her outrageous behaviour while disguised as Sofronia, falsely married to Don Pasquale to 'teach him a lesson'. The conventions of opera buffa do not allow for really serious character studies, but in this production there are interesting hints that there is more to these people than their involvement in a comic plot. The Don's self image is remarkably pictured for us by the occasional appearance of a young boy, dressed identically to him, being looked after by an indulgent and beautiful mother, fleeting memories perhaps on Pasquale's part, but a reminder to us that the mind's eye rarely sees what the world sees when calling up a personal picture of the self.

The opera is here set in a modern house presented to us as a bare outline, the roof marked only by fluorescent lights, the doors having no frames, the walls entirely absent. The furniture is old-fashioned though probably the height of fashion several decades ago, and it is replaced by impersonal minimalist pieces after "Sofronia"'s arrival as the supposed wife. It's a very witty take on the situation, emphasising the disruptive effect on the Don's habitual domestic arrangements, a factor that might easily get lost in a traditional period setting. However at times the stage business was too distracting - it's not a good sign when one finds oneself watching a silent servant's actions when a main character is singing an important aria. 

This hyperactivity, combined with the nods towards the presumed complexity of real people, reduced the broad comic effects but hardly detracted from the brilliance of the singing and the vitality of the orchestral playing.