This DVD is released
concurrently with a
CD set of the same production of
Donizetti’s comic opera, utilising the
same box-cover artwork. The audio-only
set was reviewed earlier this month
on this site by Robert McKechnie. The
story is an old one: that of an old
man trying to recapture his youth by
marrying a much younger woman, and rueing
his rashness when the girl turns from
a shy shrinking violet, after they are
"married", into a shrew that
would put Shakespeare’s Kate in the
shade. Of course, in the opera’s Commedia
dell ‘arte-like story, Don Pasquale,
is being served his just deserts for
trying to quash the romance between
his nephew Ernesto and the young widow
Norina by the comic machinations of
Dottor Malatesta. In fact, the producer,
in the interesting ‘Behind the scenes’
feature admits that many of the gestures
and asides have been culled from Harlequinade
and Shakespearean sources plus nods
towards the Marx Brothers and Charlie
Chaplin etc; it all adds up to a sparkling
and enjoyable romp. Mock seriousness
(and real tenderness) is nicely balanced
by broad humour.
The fold-out sets are
well contrived making intelligent and
tasteful use of the stage and making
scene changes seemingly effortless and
time-saving. The crusty old bachelor’s
pad is suitably fusty with floor to
ceiling bookcases and busts of bald-headed
classical figures. That is until the
spoilt demands of Pasquale’s new "wife"
softens it into a more delicate pastel
powder-puff surrounding as she proceeds
to spend, spend, spend the old man’s
money. Act I Scene II is set rather
oddly, in this production, on the sea-shore
where Norina draped on a chaise-longue
reads a knightly romance (‘Quel
guardo il cavaliere’) adding that she
too (as a young experienced widow) knows
a wile or two about courtship (‘So anch’io
la virtù magica’) Norina is sung
knowingly by Eva Mei who’s middle register
is ideally warm and strong. For me,
she is the star of this production.
Returning to the set design, the Act
III servant’s chorus is nice piece of
richly observed comic theatre: a busy
setting in the downstairs kitchens replete
with pots and pans and a long table
stretching across the width of the stage
with much coming and going. A wine waiter,
for instance, dextrously charges across
the stage balancing a high tower of
wine glasses and the vignettes of the
many characters are frozen at one point
during a pregnant pause in the chorus.
The acting is first
class, everybody relishing their roles,
Alessandro Corbelli’s Pasquale, bumbling,
pompous and outraged, Eva Mei’s Norina
shrewish and petulant and full of good
humour and Roberto de Candia, a knowing,
hoodwinking Malatesta.
I have covered to some
extent Eva Mei’s role, She sparkles
throughout. It is a shame that her Act
III duet (‘Tornami a dir che m’ami’)
with Antonio Siragusa (as her lover
and Pasquale’s nephew, Ernesto) seems
to be poorly balanced in her favour
(microphone placement/ recording problems?).
Siragusa is generally good, reasonably
ardent but his projection is sometimes
weak. Roberto de Candia is nicely wily
as the scheming Malatesta and his Act
III presto tongue-twisting patter
duet with Pasquale ‘Aspetta, aspetta,
cara sposina’ well deserves the audience’s
applause. Alessandro Corbelli generously
fills out his title role, nicely expressing
his portly character’s preening, and
strutting, then being outraged, cuckolded
and finally resigned and forgiving.
I echo exactly what my colleague Robert
McKechnie says when he comments, "Corbelli
manages to invoke precisely what Donizetti
intended to achieve: laughter at his
folly and sympathy for his consequent
predicament – a fine line that Corbelli
treads faultlessly.
A visual delight, a
sparkling production with fine comic
performances from Mei, Corbelli and
De Candia.
Ian Lace
This recording
is also available as a CD - see review
by Robert McKechnie
Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Liricio,
Cagliari/Gérard Korsten 
