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The Veteran Bachelor takes a Bride Toronto
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
04/26/2024 - & May 2, 4*, 8, 10, 12, 18, 2024
Gaetano Donizetti: Don Pasquale
Misha Kiria (Don Pasquale), Joshua Hopkins (Doctor Malatesta), Simone Osborne (Norina), Santiago Ballerini (Ernesto)
Canadian Opera Company Chorus, Sandra Horst (chorus master), Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Jacques Lacombe*/Simone Luti (conductor)
Barbe & Doucet (stage directors, sets & costumes), Guy Simard (lighting)
M. Kiria, S. Osborne (© Michael Cooper)
Don Pasquale (completed in 1843) is said to be Donizetti’s most accomplished comedic opera. It’s at once as melodious as his earlier hit L’elisir d’amore (1836) and a better overall construction than his short farces Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali (1831), Il campanello di notte (1836), Betly, o la campana svizzera (1836) and Rita, deux hommes et une femme (1841). Only La Fille du régiment (1840) may surpass Don Pasquale for its musical and dramatic qualities.
A plethoric composer, Donizetti (1797-1948) wrote seventy‑five operas, mostly tragedies and melodramas. It’s doubtful he could have been joyous while composing Don Pasquale, for he was suffering the effects of advanced syphilis, his eventual cause of death. Indeed, as compared to his earlier comedies, there’s a bittersweet quality in Don Pasquale. One may conclude the compassion one feels for the dotty old bachelor is evocative of Donizetti’s own self‑pity.
One of the qualities of this comedy is the commedia dell’arte structure of the work, with only four characters. Don Pasquale, the prototype of Pantalone, is the old fool at whose expense the farce is played. His physician, Dottore Malatesta, the prototype of Il dottore, the puppet master who directs the machinations. Ernesto, Don Pasquale’s nephew, the young lover, is the prototype of Arlecchino, and his love interest, Norina, is his Colombina. In a way, this construction explains the natural comedic quality of the opera. Perhaps one day we will see a production of Don Pasquale subtly staged with commedia dell’arte characters.
Don Pasquale refuses his nephew Ernesto’s choice of bride, the penniless widow Norina. He threatens to expel and disinherit him and decides to find a young wife to sweeten his old days. Dr. Malatesta proposes to solve Ernesto’s problem through intrigue. He passes off Norina for his sister Sofronia, fresh from the convent, as a potential bride. Don Pasquale accepts and a mock wedding is orchestrated with Malatesta’s nephew impersonating the notary. The naive ingénue is quickly transformed into a virago who drives the old man crazy and who extravagantly squanders his fortune. When a note is produced proposing a tryst with Sofronia in the garden at night, the furious Don Pasquale seeks Malatesta’s help to catch her in flagrante.
When Don Pasquale sends his “unfaithful” wife packing, she refuses to leave. Malatesta threatens her by announcing she will have to share the household with a new bride, Norina. The doctor uses Don Pasquale’s despair to impose on him a reconciliation with his nephew and approval of the penniless widow Norina. When Sofronia agrees to dissolve her marriage to Don Pasquale to the latter’s relief, the plot that was played on the old man is revealed. Don Pasquale graciously approves, the young lovers are united and all ends happily.
Productions of Italian comedic operas in North America are often problematic. The predilection for slapstick destroys comedic possibilities in light comedies where lightheartedness rather than buffoonery is the essence. Fortunately, the French Canadian team of André Barbe & Renaud Doucet are veterans of both dramatic and comedic operas. Their prestigious career is mostly a European one where in the present season alone, they’re staging La Cenerentola (Toulouse, Riga, Hamburg), Die Fledermaus (Hamburg), Die Zauberflöte (Glyndebourne), The Sound of Music (Vienna) and Pelléas et Mélisande (Liège).
Last season, I was enchanted by their riveting staging of the latter opera in Modena, Italy. I was looking forward to seeing how they would tackle the work at hand, Donizetti’s most brilliant comedy. Here, the epoch has been transposed to an alluring 1950s Rome and Don Pasquale’s villa is a modest pensione. As expected from Barbe & Doucet, the sets are striking and effective, though the intrigue is less convincing, as this Don Pasquale doesn’t seem wealthy, and Ernesto’s disinheritance seems less tragic and convoluted.
A charming idea is used to introduce the public to the story: a fotoromanzo, the photo romance that was popular in Italy in the 1950s, recounts the clash between Don Pasquale and his nephew. It also lets the public know that the old bachelor’s true passion is cats and that he has recently been diagnosed with an allergy to them (although this twist is not in the libretto). It explains the hideous green plastic felines adorning the pensione’s living room. Later, Norina bears a resemblance to Cat Woman at the wedding, conceivably Don Pasquale’s notion of the perfect female. The photo romance device would have impressed me had I not seen Laurent Pelly’s dazzling Madrid production of Il Turco in Italia, where the French stage director used the same idea, with the action also set in 1950s Italy.
For a successful Don Pasquale, all four characters must be vocally brilliant and possess a strong stage presence. This was definitely the case for Misha Kiria, the Georgian bass who portrayed the title character. Endowed with splendid comedic verve, Kiria was ideal. His ductile, full, mature voice is distinct from the other baritone in the story, Dr. Malatesta. His Italian diction was astounding and frankly remarkable for a non‑native speaker. Both he and American baritone Joshua Hopkins dazzled in the Act II duet “Aspetta, aspetta, cara sposina.” To perfectly enunciate their lines at high speed, to make them comprehensible, all the while acting with nuance and conviction, is a prodigious feat indeed. Hopkins has an overwhelming charisma and conveyed his propensity for intrigue with brio.
Argentinian tenor Santiago Ballerini, the young Ernesto, delighted with his vocal prowess. Utterly at ease in the upper register, he sang with elegance and superlative Italian diction. His Act I “Povero Ernesto...Cercherò lontana terra” was moving and stylish and his Act III serenade “Com’è gentil” charming. Watch out for this young tenor. Ballerini is a stylish performer who’ll soon be a major voice. Here, the directors chose to make Ernesto bespectacled, bookish and gauche, which is a valid choice. He is as helpless as his uncle. The intrigue is led by Malatesta and Norina.
Canadian Simone Osborne specializes in soubrette roles from Nannetta (Falstaff), Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Adina (L’elisir d’amore) and Musetta (La bohème). Though Norina is also a soubrette, she is a woman rather than a girl (according to the libretto, she’s a widow). One suspects she’s older and wiser than Ernesto, perhaps contributing to the old man’s disapproval of her as a bride for his nephew. Norina’s timbre should ideally be more mature and more feminine than Osborne’s. A talented actor, she was nonetheless a diminished Norina opposite such a masterful singing actor as Misha Kiria. Her Act I aria “So anch’io la virtù magica” is supposed to introduce the public to Norina’s character. While her coquettish nature was revealed, her femininity and determination were less palpable. She didn’t exude the required panache in her Act I duet with Malatesta “Pronta son; purch’io non manchi.”
Jacques Lacombe conducted Donizetti’s score with aplomb, showing special attention to the singers’ needs.
Mercifully, Barbe & Doucet did not resort to slapstick, and the humour in the work was naturally effervescent, thanks to the great but poised acting of the quartet. Despite the unevenness of the four, this was an effective production that delighted the Toronto audience, who were in turn extremely generous with their applause.
Ossama el Naggar
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