Fans of bel canto scouring the listings of the tenth Donizetti Opera Festival would have spied the name of Javier Camarena on the bill as Ernesto in Don Pasquale. The Mexican tenor has a dedicated following, who duly turned out to cheer on their hero in the Teatro Donizetti. The title role was sung by seasoned Italian baritone, Roberto de Candia, but both were upstaged and outsung by the young Sicilian soprano Giulia Mazzola as the rebellious Norina.
Mazzola is one of the students of the Bottega Donizetti, a professional training course for young singers who are given stage experience at the festival. Still in her 20s, she displayed a bright lyric soprano with fearless top notes and a fabulous trill in her cavatina “So anch'io la virtù magica”. To steal the limelight from Camarena in their “Tornami a dir” duet was no mean feat. The ovation that greeted her at the curtain call really caused her to catch her breath.
Mazzola has bags of acting ability too. It helps that Amélie Niermeyer makes Norina the central focus of her frenetic staging. The German director, seemingly intent on proving her worth in opera buffa, throws everything but the kitchen sink into a hyperactive production that too often goes against the music and hinders the singers. Part of the problem is that Don Pasquale is not a terribly funny opera – it’s more of a farce based on a cruel joke that goes way too far – so laugh out loud moments are few and far between.
At least when Norina slaps Pasquale here she realises things have momentarily gone too far. But Niermeyer makes a feminist point loudly at the end when the chorus unfurls a banner proclaiming “Love is ageless / Love has no boundaries” before Norina runs off without Ernesto. Isn’t the whole plot driven by how they want to be together but cannot because Don Pasquale disapproves?
Maria-Alice Bahra’s set is a creaky revolve featuring Pasquale’s slick pad. We meet him getting into shape for his wedding, doing yoga poses, stretches and weights, an exercise regime compromised by his caffeine addiction. Malatesta and Norina are working class scammers on the make, seemingly living out of a Dacia Spring (Norina wires up the car battery to boil a kettle). Bahra’s over-the-top costumes include a skimpy nun’s outfit for “Sofronia”, glittery red shoes for Pasquale, a pink elephant and delivery drivers in furry yellow suits (a surreal opening to Act 3), dancers in Barbie-pink and – a nice touch considering Camarena’s nationality – a Mariachi band for his serenata.
Camarena sang with elegance, although his top has lost a little of its lustre; he’s still an adorable stage presence. It was a lovely idea to have the trumpeter on stage as a busker for “Povero Ernesto”; the following aria “Cercherò lontana terra” was stylishly sung by the tenor. De Candia is past his best these days, inclined to bark rather too much, but he can still rattle out the quickfire patter.
Young baritone Dario Sogos also displayed vocal dexterity as Malatesta, teaming up with de Candia for their famous duet. These performances employ the new critical edition of the score by Roger Parker and Gabriele Dotto and it turns out that the Pasquale-Malatesta patter duet was once even longer.
Another noticeable difference comes right at the start of the overture; the lilting cello melody was originally written for a French horn, but the player messed it up so badly at the premiere that Donizetti reassigned it first to a basset horn and then to the familiar cello. Here, the horn reclaimed the spotlight, not entirely securely.
Mexican conductor Iván López Reynoso led a lively performance, sometimes dominating the singers – an acoustical quirk of the house? – and not always with tidy ensemble, but certainly in keeping with Niermeyer’s busy staging.
Mark's press trip was funded by the Fondazione Donizetti
