Name: Don Pasquale
Start: 2013-07-18T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2013-08-24T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Opera House

Admin

Organization

Singer

Bass

Alessandro Corbelli

Don Pasquale

Baritone

Nikolay Borchev

Doctor Malatesta

Tenor

Alek Shrader

Ernesto

Soprano

Danielle de Niese

Norina

James Platt

A notary

Anna-Marie Sullivan

Servant

Conductor

Enrique Mazzola

Stage director

Mariame Clément

Set designer

Julia Hansen

Chorus master

Jeremy Bines

Lighting designer

Bernd Purkrabek

Others

The Glyndebourne Chorus

Orchestra

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Glyndebourne

Italian

United Kingdom

Opera House

Ebert Room

Lewes

Hailed by The Financial Times as "a Glyndebourne classic", Mariame Clément's 2013 production of Donizetti's Don Pasquale is remembered as a highlight of the celebrated festival's past seasons. Her perceptive re-interpretation of the masterpiece starred the opera buffa expert Alessandro Corbelli as Don Pasquale and the scintillating soprano Danielle de Niese as Norina, joined by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Glyndebourne Chorus under the baton of Enrique Mazzola.

In 1842, the director of Paris' Théâtre-Italien Jules Janin suggested to Donizetti the idea of composing a new opera tailored to the talents of Giulia Grisi, Antonio Tamburini, and Luigi Lablache, some of the most popular singers of the day. Donizetti took him at his word, and produced a work now considered the high point of the 19th-century opera buffa tradition. Drawing on selected commedia dell'arte stock characters, the librettist Giovanni Ruffini (in collaboration with Donizetti himself) brought to life in unforgiving detail the story of the curmudgeonly old Don Pasquale, who decides to marry in order to disinherit his nephew Ernesto for himself wanting to marry a young woman judged unsuitable by his uncle. To select a bride, Don Pasquale turns to Dr. Malatesta, who recommends his own convent-raised sister Sofronia. Little does Don Pasquale know that the girl is actually Ernesto's love, Norina, in disguise...

One of the reasons why Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is regarded as a cornerstone of the Italian comic opera tradition is because its characters are no mere commedia dell’arte stereotypes, but complex, vulnerable human beings. This is brought to the fore in Mariame Clément’s sensitive and perceptive production, which was hailed by the Financial Times as "a Glyndebourne classic". Acclaimed buffo baritone Alessandro Corbelli sings the title role "with just the right degree of lugubriousness", while Danielle de Niese, one of today’s most sought-after sopranos, is an "engaging" and "irresistible" Norina (The Telegraph). Bel canto specialist Enrique Mazzola conducts with flair and panache.

Don Pasquale (Donizetti), 2013
There’s no fool like an old fool in Mariame Clement’s much-loved production of Donizetti’s comedy, Don Pasquale.

Don Pasquale Donizetti

Public

English

Approved

Photos