Donizetti: Don Pasquale
Royal Opera, 14th October 2019
When newlywed “Sofronia” slaps Don Pasquale and it provokes titters of laughter, you’ve got a problem. It’s the point in Act 3 where the lesson that the elderly bachelor is being taught for disinheriting his nephew by taking a young wife himself crosses the line from prank into cruelty. In Donizetti’s opera buffa, it’s the one moment which is absolutely no laughing matter. Damiano Michieletto’s new production for The Royal Opera does have Don Pasquale as victim – often cutting the pathetic figure of an ageing, pill-popping guy who just misses his mum – but asks us to laugh at him anyway.
Bryn Terfel (Don Pasquale) and Olga Peretyatko (Norina)
© ROH | Clive Barda
Click here to read the full review on Bachtrack.