Don Pasquale

Don Pasquale is a delightful Donizetti opera, the story is a perfect balance of comedy and darkness and the music is amazing. Although I love the Italo Tajo, Simone Alaimo and Ferruccio Furlanetto productions, and enjoyed the Alessandro Corbelli, Met and Geraint Evans performances, I found myself not caring for this one.

Other than the music there is one asset that is consistent and in a good way. That is the performance of Juan Diego Florez. I have always loved this man's singing, right from his effortless top, great technique and making fiendishly difficult runs and florid writing sound easy. Vocally, every single one of these are here, as well as a handsome appearance and a suave and charming presence on stage, making Ernesto, who I find the least interesting character of the principal characters, immediately likable.

Ruggero Raimondi is also not bad. He always was a terrific actor, and here in the title role he does have a great sense of comedy yet delivers the darker aspects of the role very movingly. But I do think his voice has seen better days, he does show good style but here his voice doesn't sound very powerful and he has a tendency to sound as though he is shouting.

Isabel Rey I do like vocally as Norina. Her tone is bright and sparkling and she copes reasonably with her florid passage-work. Sadly her acting doesn't match her singing, she often comes across as too hard and shrewish and not enough of the charm or innocence, and you can tell that comedy doesn't come naturally to her. Not only that but the close ups for her are unforgiving, showing that she is too mature for Norina.

As for the Malatesta, Oliver Widmer is also a winner vocally, he does have a lovely burnished baritone voice and his patter duet, the highlight of the opera and the production, positively blisters. I just don't care him as an actor, he never comes across as funny or scheming, there are even times like when he gropes his own sister when Malatesta comes across as creepy.

Musically, I wouldn't say the production is bad. The orchestra do play with style and beauty of tone, however there are times when it comes across as too brash, overpowering some of the singers especially Raimondi(unfortunately). Nello Santi's conducting has moments where it's either sluggish or over-driven but on the most part it is an accomplished reading.

Visually, this was where the production really fell down. I didn't mind the updating, I have seen several updatings that do work, conversely I did find the colours of the costumes and sets rather garish that they swallow the performers. The staging is mostly lacking. What should be funny is mindless shtick instead, the stage is often too cluttered and the teddy bears served no purpose whatsoever.

In conclusion, a disappointing and uneven production, though Florez is superb. 5/10 Bethany Cox