« Malatesta:
– She is but fresh from the convent, her confusion is natural. She’s naturally of a wild disposition. It’s up to you to tame her.

Norina, aside:
– You’ll see, you old fool, how I’m going to bring you to your senses… »
ACT 1, MALATESTA AND NORINA

LIVELY
COMICAL
FOOL’S GAME

Libretto by Giovanni Ruffini

Baron Don Pasquale decides to thwart his nephew Ernesto’s claims to his fortune by marrying. His physician Doctor Malatesta offers his sister, the docile Sofronia, in marriage. However, she is none other than Norina, Ernesto’s fiancée. Malatesta has convinced her that the best way to marry the man she loves is to marry the old man first. She soon proves to be a hellish, spendthrift, fickle and insolent wife. After a series of comical twists and turns, Don Pasquale admits that marriage is not for him and blesses the union of Norina and Ernesto…

THE QUINTESSENTIAL OPERA BUFFA…

Donizetti was at the height of his fame by the end of 1842. While in Paris directing the rehearsals for his opera Linda di Chamounix at the Théâtre-Italien, he was commissioned to write an opera buffa with the assurance that it would be performed by a first-rate vocal quartet. He teamed up with librettist and Risorgimento patriot Giovanni Ruffini to write a hilarious work in just eleven days. Don Pasquale was to be his 69th opera. The story goes that the librettist, annoyed by all the changes requested by the composer, left in a huff, and even demanded that his name be removed from the bill. The opera was a huge success from its premiere in Paris, even if the critics expressed some doubts. Don Pasquale, which quickly became a worldwide success, is Donizetti’s only opera that continues to be performed to this day.

As in L’Elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale is a lively, joyful tale of star-crossed lovers, full of misunderstandings and other deceptions.  All these ingredients have been combined to create an irresistible and frenetic opera, that recalls Rossini’s farces and has become the quintessential masterpiece of opera buffa. It was to be Donizetti’s last great success. Like some of his heroines, he died in a state of derangement due to syphilis.

• LAST PERFORMED AT THE ORW
  NOVEMBER 2009 (CONCERT PERFORMANCE)
• NEW PRODUCTION
  OPÉRA ROYAL DE WALLONIE-LIÈGE
• WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE TAX SHELTER OF THE FEDERAL BELGIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE BEL ARTS FUND