Don Pasquale

Gaetano Donizetti’s final comedic opera, Don Pasquale, was written for the Parisian Théâtre-Italien in 1843, shortly before Donizetti’s physical and mental collapse. It deals with motives that have been in play since antiquity. An elderly miser wants to marry a young girl. In Donizetti’s Dramma buffo, though, the old man is taught a bitter lesson: his factotum Dr. Malatesta is in cahoots with Norina, the beloved of Pasquale’s nephew Ernesto, as they hatch up a trick marriage plan. Once Don Pasquale has married Norina (who has assumed a fake identity), she turns his life into a living hell. The depths to which Don Pasquale sinks in the course of the opera are even greater than those of Verdi’s Falstaff, who wouldn’t take to the stage for another 40 years. At first Don Pasquale feels like a man reborn, but at the end he is faced with a shattered pile of hopes and dreams.

Donizetti’s opera oscillates between irony and gravity, showing characters far removed from common buffo clichés. Time and again, the audience finds their laughter stuck in their throats. In this production, stage director Christof Loy is interested in the characters’ depths and chasms of emotion. Making his debut in Zurich with this revival is young Italian conductor Sesto Quatrini. Appearing in the title role is Pietro Spagnoli, who has already thrilled audiences as part of Rossini’s Il turco in Italia. Appearing as Norina is Polish soprano Aleksandra Kubas-Kruk. Tenor Edgardo Rocha, a welcome guest in Zurich, sings Ernesto, while Malatesta will be sung by our ensemble member Konstantin Shushakov.