In the opera world circa 1840s and 1850s, there was only one who wore the mantle of Rossini, who retired in 1830 after his French grand opera William Tell, Gaetano Donizetti.
Prodigious to the edge of craziness, he would write over 70 operas, some produced in the same year. He hopped from Milan, Rome, Vienna, to Paris, dropping operas like bonbons in his wake. In the current rep, his works are standards of bel canto: his “great English queens” series, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, Roberto Devereux; the bucolic comedy L’elisir d’amore; his first international sensation Lucia di Lammermoor; his opera comique La fille du régiment: and one of his last, the opera buffa Don Pasquale (1843). He continued to compose between travels, but the ravages of syphilis began to slow him down. By 1846, he was housed in a French asylum and later transferred to his beloved hometown of Bergamo, Italy. A complete empty shell, he died there in 1848.
But Don Pasquale is a most fitting epitaph to his musical exceptionalism. It bubbles with life, melody without compare, a stunning orchestration, and psychological rightness. Yes, it’s bones are buffa polished to the highest degree – commedia dell’arte cartoon characters and sit-com situations – but Donizetti handles the silliness with profound understanding and empathy.
There’s the old geezer who thinks he’s God’s gift to women (Pasquale), the earnest young lover (Ernesto), the pretty young thing who’s wiser than all of them (Norina), a crafty doctor who orchestrates the plot (Malatesta), and a comic servant (the Notary).
Pasquale (bass Aidan Smerud) wants a young wife so he can produce children so he won’t have to bequeath his fortune to his errant nephew Ernesto (tenor Cody Boling), in love with Norina (soprano Amia Langer). The doctor (baritone John Allen Nelson) in cahoots with Ernesto hatches a plot where Norina will impersonate “Sofronia,” a virginal convent girl, and have Pasquale fall in love with her.
As soon as the marriage is ordained, Sofronia/Norina turns into the shrew of shrews, shouting at the addled Don, ordering him around, spending his money on clothes and jewels, and flaunting her sexual allure. When she slaps Pasquale, the opera takes a swerve into the tragic, but not for long. All complications are resolved in the “Garden scene,” when Pasquale sees the error of his ways and allows Ernesto and Norina to marry happily ever after. The moral in Donizetti and Giovanni Ruffini’s sparkly libretto is that Old Men Should Not Marry Young Women; nothing will end well.
Rossini sets this silly comedy under some of his most radiant melodies using the novel “leitmotif” technique that would be overwhelmed by Wagner years later. Beautiful arias abound, with Norina’s opening, flirty, coloratura workout, “I know your magic ways,” as she mocks the romance she’s creating, a high point. It sets the pace for the entire work, as do Pasquale’s eager to trot “A sudden fire” and Malatesta’s “Beautiful like an angel,” as he describes Sofronia’s hidden beauty to the lustful Don.
Ernesto gets his own standout, the by-now standard tenor concert piece, “How lovely,” as he rhapsodizes on Norina’s beauty, accompanied by guitar at the beginning of this show-stopper. Every bel canto opera worth its salt had at least one, if not two, standalone tunes that could make or break an early 19th century opera. You needed something the audience could hum on their way out. And coloratura, don’t forget that – those dazzling displays of vocal calisthenics for both male and female voices. Norina soars all over the place, and even Pasquale and Malatesta have a tongue-twister patter song that even the master Rossini would have been proud of.
Barrel-chested tenor Boling certainly has the power, but the high notes left him a bit bereft and strained. He never sounded sweet. Smerud’s Pasquale, while a bit too young for the old roué, has marvelous acting chops but his projection was a little short and was often overpowered by the orchestra. Langer and Nelson mesmerized.
Langer’s a comic actress deluxe with the voice of an angel. She sailed through Donizetti’s treacherous passages as if floating. She fizzed in the part. And Nelson (a superlatively wicked Sparafucile in OH’s 2023 production of Rigoletto) was a commanding Malatesta, with his rich effortless baritone firing on all cylinders. Baritone Jack Cozad’s Servant and Notary, with Groucho glasses and false nose, stole the show whenever he appeared, his lovely voice shining along with the buffoonery he created.
Opera in the Heights’ Artistic Director Kathryn Frady doubled as director and kept Donizetti bubbling with comic touches and spry movement. But scene changes shouldn’t take so long. We have to wait precious moments for stagehands to move potted palms and carry off a couch or desk, meanwhile all the opera’s effervescence dissipates. Maestro Mary Box knows her bel canto, and the OH orchestra blazed and purred, especially the woodwinds, celli, trumpet, and percussion. They made a lovely sound.
All in all, OH’s Don Pasquale, a difficult work to pull off with ease, is a highlight of the company since the departure of beloved maestro Eiki Isomura. Puccini’s blood-and-guts Tosca opens their next season.
Don Pasquale continues at 2 p.m. Sunday, April 12 at Opera in the Heights, 1703 Heights Boulevard. For more information, call 713-861-5303 or visit operaintheheights.org. $35-$85.
