Scottish Opera: Don Pasquale
Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 12/10/2024
Orchestra of Scottish Opera; Chorus of ‘Don Pasquale’; Stuart Stratford (conductor); David Stout (bass-baritone); Simone Osborne (soprano); Filipe Manu (tenor); Josef Jeongmeen Ahn (baritone); Jonathan Forbes Kennedy (baritone); Frances Morrison-Allen (soprano); Steven Faughey (baritone), Jonathan Sedgwick (bass)
Italian comic opera in the form of a hilarious revival of Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’ had launched Scottish Opera’s super 2023-24 season a year ago, and on the night of Saturday 12th October, a secure aim was taken at Donizetti’s ‘Don Pasquale’, targeting another season-opening hit revival, this time of a 2014 production. They did not miss. The Orchestra of Scottish Opera and The Chorus of ‘Don Pasquale’, together with a stellar cast of 4 principals and 4 character roles, were conducted by Stuart Stratford. Visual elements of design, stage direction and movement combined 1960s colour, Italianate style and Tatiesque visual hilarity in a Barbe & Doucet mise-en-scène (director/choreographer Renaud Doucet and costume/set designer André Barbe, guiding the revival as they had in 2014). If there is a better way of doing Italian comic opera, I would love to hear of it (though I could not promise to listen without patent scepticism).
A projected fotoromanza creatively revealed the (somewhat embellished) back story during the crisply performed overture. Don Pasquale, the unmarried patrone of a dingy pensione, is a cat lover who has discovered that he is allergic to them and has had to content himself with sculpted models of cats which festoon the pensione. His nephew Ernesto, on whom he relies to produce an heir to carry on the family line, has rejected the (perfectly hideous) bride that Pasquale has chosen for him, and is in love with a poor but dishy young widow, Norina, the sister of Pasquale’s physician and confidant, Doctor Malatesta. Malatesta is, however, sympathetic to the lovers and has a “cunning plan” – to persuade the aging curmudgeonly Pasquale himself to marry, thereby taking the heat off the lovers.
English bass-baritone David Stout, whose pompous, parsimonious Doctor Bartolo in the Rossini a year ago was a vocal and dramatic triumph, must have been a natural choice for the role of the equally pompous and parsimonious Don Pasquale, and he did not disappoint. He delivered a performance as comedically richly ironic as it was vocally satisfying. His Act 1 ‘Ah, un foco insolito’, anticipating rejuvenated marital bliss at the head of a large family, was only one example of this. As his comeuppance unfolds, the pathos, indignation, and finally rage were delivered with comedic excellence. A highlight of this, for me at any rate, was the impossibly rapid Act 3 patter song in duet with Malatesta: ‘Aspetta, aspetta, cara sposina’ – absolutely superb.
Korean baritone Josef Jeongmeen Ahn was a wily Malatesta. Pressed by Pasquale to find a bride for him, he describes an angelic, demure (and entirely fictitious) sister Sofronia, a role which he then has to persuade his actual sister Norina to play. The Malatesta role is blessed with glorious duets, but the ‘plot’, as both narrative and conspiracy, is perfectly encapsulated in the Malatesta-Norina duet at the end of Act 1, ‘Pronta son; purch'io non manchi’, and it was delicious. They resolve to teach the old fool a lesson he will not forget.
New Zealand-Tongan tenor Filipe Manu was a charismatic Ernesto. Disinherited for his refusal to marry Pasquale’s choice, when he finds out that Pasquale himself is going to marry ‘Malatesta’s sister’, he feels betrayed (super aria ‘Mi fa il destino mendico’) and plans to emigrate (another at the beginning of Act 2 ‘Cercherò lontana terra’). Fortunately, he is apprised of the ‘plan’ in time and plays his part in the humiliation of Don Pasquale, leading to the old man’s repentance of his folly. Especially unforgettably lovely, though, was the touching Act 3 love duet with Norina ‘Tornami a dir che m'ami’ and his Neapolitan-style guitar-and-chorus accompanied aria that preceded it.
Canadian soprano Simone Osborne, standing in for the Australian Stacey Alleaume who was indisposed, was a revelation in the ‘triple’ role of Norina, comprising the genial, resourceful, attractive Norina and the two fictitious personae of Sofronia: an impossibly demure and shy pussycat before the bogus marriage contract is signed in the presence of a fake notary, and a relentless, spendthrift tormenting tigress thereafter. I find it remarkable that, in a production where much of the visual comedy depends on co-ordinated movement with precision that must have been honed through many hours of rehearsal, to say nothing of the musical complexities of the duet and quartet numbers, a performer who must have arrived after the programmes were printed was so perfect in such a complex role. But she was absolutely superb. Donizetti lets us fall for the real Norina as she muses on her own genuine personality, in contrast with the characters in a book she’s reading, in her first Act 1 aria, ‘So anch'io la virtù magica’. And magical she was. Comedic gold too as the domineering, patronising Sofronia, reducing the hapless Pasquale to a quivering wreck, persuaded to abandon his opposition to the union of Ernesto and Norina, only to discover that Norina and Sofronia are the same person. It is Norina that leads the final quartet and the earworm with which everybody headed home: ‘La moral di tutto questo’ – the moral of ‘all this’: an old man who plans to marry must be soft in the head.
The farcical character roles were also well served: Scottish baritone Jonathan Forbes Kennedy was Carlino, Malatesta’s cousin, the fake notary, faithfully recording the marriage contract dictated by Malatesta that surrenders Pasquale’s fortune to Sofronia. Scottish Opera veteran soprano Frances Morrison-Allen played a chain-smoking chambermaid, comically eavesdropping and appearing to winch the clothes-line that concealed the Pensione Pasquale set (subsequently Pensione Sofronia) for the outdoor scenes. English baritone Steven Faughey was the greasy cook, in a role with surprising comical choreographic flourishes. English bass Jonathan Sedgwick, a characterful Commisario in ‘La Traviata’ in May, was the decrepit porter, usually asleep on the job.
The chorus comprised various colourfully-clad tourists and later the additional staff as Sofronia swells the payroll, plus the numerous vendors in attendance as she begins to fritter away Pasquale’s fortune. It’s not an opera that is rich in chorus numbers, but the Act 3 chorus where the augmented army of servants gossip gleefully about the scandalous drama so far, ‘Che interminabile andirivieni!’ was an absolute hoot. They looked and sounded terrific.
This is a superb production. There are 3 more Glasgow performances, 2 in Inverness, 3 in Edinburgh and 1 in Aberdeen. It is expected that Stacey Alleaume will be back for the role of Norina for Edinburgh and Aberdeen. I would rate it as ‘unmissable’.
After the final curtain calls, the General Director of Scottish Opera, Alex Reedijk, introduced Rick Jones of The Critics’ Circle to present the company with their award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, citing last year’s brilliant David McVicar production of Puccini’s ‘Il Trittico’. Richly deserved.
Photo credit: Jane Barlow