Don Pasquale is one of Donizetti's funniest operas and features some of his loveliest music. A foolish old man Don Pasquale wants to marry and have an heir in order to cut off his rebellious nephew Ernesto without a penny. Ernesto is in love with Norina. Don Pasquale is duped by Dr Malatesta into marrying a ‘country girl’ Sofronia, who is actually Ernesto’s lover Norina. Once married, she turns into a monster and goes on an extravagant spending spree with Pasquale’s money and he wishes he had never married her…
With elegant 1940s costumes our beautiful production of Don Pasquale toured to 20 venues across the UK. Don Pasquale was conducted by Fraser Goulding and designed by Gabriella Ingram.
If you like your opera fresh, frothy and funny — with a light sprinkling of snow — then Mansfield Palace Theatre was the place to be on Sunday.That’s when the enterprising Swansea City Opera made a return visit to town with Donizetti’s comic masterpiece ‘Don Pasquale.’
And for those who braved the snow, it was an evening of excellent entertainment in the best “bel canto” tradition from a quality quartet that delivered on every note in this beautifully staged production in 1840s costumes.
This was more than evident in this, the most popular of Donizetti’s 66 operas, in a story of love, deception and marrying at your peril, something that elderly bachelor Don Pasquale (Paul Hudson) found out after being tricked into marrying a younger woman to disinherit his nephew, Ernesto (Ben Kerslake). But the brains behind this cunning plan was family friend Malesta (Aris ) who was more interested in advancing the cause of his sister, Norina (Helen Massey) getting hitched to Ernesto . . . something that Don Pasquale finally agreed to as well signing up to the sentiments “that old men marry at their peril.”
Tony Spittles,
The Chad and Worksop Guardian
Photography by Guy Harrop – http://www.guyharrop.com/
