Don Pasquale the Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series

Don Pasquale

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Don Pasquale Italian opera buffa in three acts Music by Gaetano Donizetti

Libretto by Giovanni Ruffini and Gaetano Donizetti after Angelo Anelli’s libretto for Stefano Pavesi’s opera Ser Marcantonio Premiere at the Théâtre Italien in Paris January 3, 1843

Adapted from the Opera Journeys Lecture Series by Burton D. Fisher

Brief Synopsis Characters in the Opera Story Narrative with Music Highlights Donizetti and Don Pasquale

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Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series Published ©Copywritten by Opera Journeys www.operajourneys.com

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Brief Synopsis Don Pasquale, an elderly and miserly bachelor, has decided to marry. His purpose is to provide a new heir to his wealth and disinherit his nephew, Ernesto, who has defiantly refused his wishes to enter a marriage he arranged for him. Ernesto is in love with the young widow, Norina. Pasquale asks his friend and physician, Dr. Malatesta, to find him a wife. Malatesta, realizing the absurdity of Pasquale’s plans, decides to make his friend aware of his foolishness and teach him a lesson. Malatesta manufactures a charade in which Pasquale will marry his “sister,” a nonexistent woman whom he describes in such glowing terms that Pasquale falls in love with her sight unseen. In a mock wedding, Norina masquerades as Malatesta’s sister, and afterwards, turns Pasquale’s life into mayhem and pandemonium. Determined to rid himself of the turmoil in his life—and his new “wife”—Pasquale agrees to Malatesta’s plan to allow Ernesto to marry Norina with the special caveat that Norina will become the guardian of his household and restore order. Afterwards, the charade is revealed to Pasquale and the elderly bachelor realizes the senselessness of his foolish desires to marry a young woman. Pasquale confers his blessings on the lovers, Norina and Ernesto. Characters in the Opera Don Pasquale, an old bachelor Bass Dr. Malatesta, his friend Baritone Ernesto, Don Pasquale’s nephew Tenor Norina, a young widow Soprano A Notary Baritone Valets, maids, major-domo, dressmakers, hairdresser TIME: Early nineteenth century PLACE: Rome

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Story Narrative with Music Highlights Overture An overture previews two melodies from arias sung later in the opera: Ernesto’s serenade, “Com’è gentil la notte a mezzo April!” (“How soft and fair, this April night!”) and Norina’s selfcharacterizing aria, “So anch’io la virtù magica” (“The magic virtue of a glance, I know on each occasion”). Act 1 - Scene 1: A room in Don Pasquale’s house The old miserly bachelor, Don Pasquale, sits impatiently as he waits for the arrival of his friend, Dr. Malatesta, from whom he seeks advice and counsel. Don Pasquale is furious with his nephew, Ernesto, who stubbornly refuses to enter a marriage which he has arranged for him with a staid and wealthy lady. On the contrary, Ernesto wants to marry the young widow, Norina, and Pasquale has threatened to disinherit him. Pasquale himself has decided that he will marry and sire an heir. The wily and ambivalent Dr. Malatesta, Pasquale’s physician and confidant, arrives. Malatesta is sympathetic to the sincere love between Norina and Ernesto, and views his old friend’s desire to marry as utter foolishness. So Malatesta contrives a plot to deter Pasquale from his plans, and at the same time, teach him a lesson. He invents his imaginary sister, Sofronia, a beautiful young woman from a wealthy family who has recently emerged from her convent school. Malatesta describes this “ideal woman” and thoroughly persuades Pasquale to consummate his marriage plans with Sofronia. Dr. Malatesta: “Bella siccome un angelo”

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Malatesta assures his friend that his generative powers are favorable, and the old bachelor delights in the assurance that his youth will be restored. Excitedly, Pasquale urges Malatesta to fetch his sister at once. As the prospective bridegroom muses about his future joys, his nephew Ernesto arrives. When Ernesto learns that his uncle plans to take a wife, he becomes disconcerted, realizing that not only will he become disinherited, but all he will be able to offer his beloved Norina will be poverty. Ernesto rhapsodizes about Norina, contrasted against Pasquale’s mean and merry patter. Ernesto: “Sogno soave e casto”

Ernesto pleads with Dr. Malatesta, urging him to intercede on his behalf with his uncle, but Pasquale’s revelation that he is to marry Dr. Malatesta’s sister, Sofronia, convinces him that he has been betrayed and he curses his fate.

Act I - Scene 2: The garden in Norina’s house Norina laughs about the silliness in the romantic tale she is reading, frustrated that she can learn nothing from those heroines from the age of chivalry. Norina expresses conviction in her own charm. Norina’s aria, heard earlier in the overture, is sung as she reads from the romantic novel: “Quel guardo il cavaliere” (“That look stabbed the cavalier in his heart”), that leads to her conclusion, “So anch’io la virtù magica.” Norina: “So anch’io la virtù magica”

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Dr. Malatesta arrives to deliver a letter from Ernesto to Norina. The letter announces the tragic news that Ernesto is about to be disinherited by his uncle, and as a result, he must forsake Norina forever and leave Rome. Malatesta calms the perturbed Norina, and conceives a plan that will resolve the entire problem for the young lovers. At the same time, he will teach the conceited old Pasquale a lesson. Norina is ready and willing to do anything if it will help her ultimately to win Ernesto back. Dr. Malatesta plans a masquerade in which he will introduce a disguised Norina to the old bachelor as his sister Sofronia and they will perform a mock wedding. As soon as Norina/ Sofronia becomes Pasquale’s wife, she will have him completely at her mercy. Norina welcomes Malatesta’s scheme and gaily practices the airs and graces by which she plans to bewitch Pasquale. The idea of punishing Pasquale for his cruelty to her beloved Ernesto delights her with zest. Norina: “Pronta io son”

Act II: Don Pasquale’s drawing room Ernesto laments his future exile, the cruel treatment by his uncle, and the loss of his beloved Norina. He will lose both his love and his inheritance. Ernesto: “Cercherò lontana terra”

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After Ernesto leaves, Pasquale arrives, magnificently attired for his wedding day, preening himself like a peacock, and afire with impatience to meet his bride. Dr. Malatesta introduces a heavily veiled lady—actually Norina in disguise—as his sister Sofronia. Malatesta warns Pasquale to remain aloof because his sister is fresh from the convent and very timid. Encouraged by Malatesta, Norina feigns terror, but after Pasquale fumbles in his attempt to make polite conversation, she becomes amused and almost collapses with laughter. Pasquale becomes overcome with the gentleness and modesty of this attractive woman, and insists that he marry her at once. A notary— Dr. Malatesta’s cousin, Carlino— is summoned. Dr. Malatesta dictates the terms of the marital agreement. Pasquale is to cede half his fortune to his new wife and give her full power over his household. Ernesto arrives to bid farewell to his uncle and is introduced to Pasquale’s new bride, the former “Miss Malatesta.” Ernesto becomes enraged at the spectacle of Norina apparently in the act of marrying his testy uncle, but Malatesta takes him aside and whispers that the marriage is a pretense, enacted for his benefit. He must keep silent, add his name to the witness list, and remain and watch the fun. When the old man tries to embrace his new wife, Sofronia, she completely transforms herself into a shrew, acting shamelessly and arrogantly, dropping her submissiveness, and screaming in outrage. She reproves Pasquale’s manners and forbids him from dismissing Ernesto, taking Ernesto as her cavalier servente—her gallant. Pasquale becomes frozen in terror. Norina takes full command over the household. She doubles the wages of the majordomo, purchases ten horses and carriages, demands a score of new servants, and arranges for a feast for 50 that very evening.

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Pasquale is beside himself at her impudence and effrontery, but is ineffectual in his defense against Norina’s tyranny. He complains that he has been betrayed and made into a laughing stock. Don Pasquale: “Son tradito”

While Malatesta continues his resourceful deceptions, Norina reassures Ernesto of her love for him.

Act III - Scene 1: Pasquale’s house Pasquale’s drawing room is crowded with tradespeople bearing clothes and jewels for Norina. Pasquale sits at his desk, which is piled high with bills, and wonders how he can end this wild extravagance. Norina has managed to turn the whole house upside down, and at this moment Pasquale’s only wish is to be rid of her. Pasquale tries to prevent Norina from going out to the theater. Norina orders Pasquale to bed, and when he protests, she slaps him. Infuriated and half weeping, Pasquale concludes that all is over for him. He is now brokenhearted. The music reveals his sadness, immediately changing from major to minor key.

As Norina departs, she purposely drops a letter for Pasquale to find. The letter suggests a rendezvous with Sofronia and the writer in the garden that evening. Furious at his wife’s new villainy and betrayal, and in desperate need of advice and counsel, Pasquale summons his friend Dr. Malatesta.

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Pasquale recounts his present dilemma to Malatesta: his bride’s extravagance, and now her infidelity. Perhaps it would have been better to give his consent for Norina and Ernesto to wed? Malatesta struggles to keep a straight face and offers a plan to catch the lovers red-handed. Then, Pasquale could take them promptly to court. Their comic patter duet is full of verve and spirit: “Cheti, cheti, immantinente” (“Softly so as not to arouse suspicion”).

Act III - Scene 2: A garden near Don Pasquale’s house Behind the garden wall, Ernesto sings a tender serenade about the balmy April night that inspires him to see his beloved again. Ernesto: “Com’è gentil”

Norina cautiously opens the gate and admits Ernesto. They sing a rapturous duet. Ernesto and Norina: “Torna mia dir che m’ami”

Norina and Ernesto are interrupted by the approach of Pasquale and Malatesta. The outraged and betrayed “husband” confronts his “wife” and orders her to leave his house at once. When she adamantly refuses, Malatesta takes charge of the situation. He tells Pasquale that the only way he can rid himself of Sofronia is to allow Norina to marry Ernesto that very evening, and allow her to take over the reins of his household and restore order.

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When Malatesta informs Norina that Pasquale has consented to her marriage to Ernesto, with assumed disdain—in the role of Sofronia— she announces that she would rather leave than live under the same roof as Norina. Pasquale chuckles when he hears this welcome news. Nevertheless, she affirms that she will not leave until Norina and Ernesto are genuinely married. Ernesto is summoned and told that his uncle has granted him the hand of Norina and an annual income of four thousand crowns. The entire charade and conspiracy is explained to Pasquale. Everything had been a trick to dissuade him from a genuine marriage by engaging him in a false one. Pasquale accepts the situation with good grace, happy to be rid of Sofronia, and is soon persuaded to give his blessing to his rascal nephew Ernesto and the clever Norina. All provide their final comments on the absurdity and foolishness of old men marrying younger women.

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Donizetti.................................and Don Pasquale

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aetano Donizetti was born in Bergamo, Italy, in 1797. He died in 1848 at the age of 51 after contracting syphilis, a disease which eventually led to his insanity. In spite of his family’s ambition for him to become a lawyer, his exceptional musical talents earned him a scholarship to study at a local music school under the supervision of the renowned Simon Mayr, one of the leading composers of his day. Mayr became Donizetti’s mentor, the man who recognized his talents, trained him diligently in composition and harmony, and encouraged his career as an opera composer. Donizetti would express his devotion and appreciation to Mayr throughout his entire lifetime, referring to him as his “second father.” At seventeen, the budding opera composer undertook more advanced music studies at the Bologna Conservatory, and in 1818, at the age of 21, his first opera, Enrico di Borgogna, earned appreciable praise for its originality and stimulated the advance of his career. A series of subsequent triumphs led him to Naples, an important center of opera at the time, and afterwards to Paris, the recognized center of the opera world. During his lifetime, Donizetti would eventually compose an astounding total of either 69 or 72 operas, depending on the source, within a brief time span, establishing his commanding reputation as a major figure in nineteenth-century Italian opera. Donizetti and his contemporaries Rossini and Bellini were the triumvirate representing the Italian bel canto opera tradition during the early nineteenth century. In 1818, when Donizetti began his career, success as an opera composer implied a strict obedience to the formulas of the Rossinian style. Rossini was the icon, and his bel canto operas were the rage of audiences. As such, he

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single-handedly became the major influence and primary architect of all contemporary opera. Whether it was opera buffa, or comic opera, such as Rossini’s great The Barber of Seville, or opera seria, or serious opera, such as his masterpiece, William Tell, Rossini vitalized, invigorated, fashioned, and established all the structural guidelines for Italian Romantic, or bel canto, operas. Composers such as Vincenzo Bellini and Gaetano Donizetti obediently conformed to Rossini’s rigid formulae and florid styles until they later developed their own specific musical signatures. Bel canto is literally defined as “beautiful singing.” It was a genre in which voice and melody were the vital essence or soul of the art form. In bel canto opera, the focus was on singers and singing. Although Weber may have been concerned with German culture in his operas, and Beethoven in Fidelio was aiming at spiritual values, those lofty ideals were not the concern of the bel canto composers. The bel canto art form was emotional and exhibitionistic, and composers did not compel their listeners to think. Berlioz complained, “Music for the Italians is a sensual pleasure and nothing more. For this noble expression of the mind they have hardly more respect than for the art of cooking. They want a score that, like a plate of macaroni, can be assimilated immediately without their having to think about it, or even to pay attention to it.” Within the varied panorama of bel canto operas, there are operas that are considered great, good, and bad, and some that are even considered ugly. Those operas that are considered trite and superficial are long forgotten; however, there are indeed many masterpieces that remain prominent in the repertories of all major opera companies. The best pages of Donizetti’s serious operas have power and passion, and his best comic operas are marked with a dashing spontaneity, verve, and gaiety. In his comedies, in particular, Donizetti

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was a master of mixing humor with pathos. The composer possessed unique resources and capabilities; he was a fluent technician who possessed nimble craftsmanship and manifested a fertile melodic inventiveness. If there is anything that distinguishes Donizetti’s music, it is his exquisite vocal lines, and a lyricism possessing incredible melodic beauty. Donizetti insisted with almost religious conviction that the one overwhelming and important ingredient of music was beautiful melody. Ultimately, beautiful melody became the cornerstone of Donizetti’s musical philosophy, a theory he preached and practiced. Among Donizetti’s major works familiar to twentieth-century opera audiences are Anna Bolena (1830), a powerful and swift tragic drama which brought the composer international recognition; L’elisir d’amore (1832), one of his greatest successes and a masterpiece of comic sentimentality; Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), considered the archetype of Italian Romantic opera of the period; La fille du régiment (1840), an incredible success from his Paris years (evoking Berlioz’s remark: “One can no longer speak of the opera houses of Paris but only of the opera houses of M. Donizetti.”); La favorite (1840), a grand work of Gallic elegance which has been considered the composer’s finest serious French opera; Linda di Chamounix (1842), a blend of buffo and melancholy written in the semiseria genre; and Don Pasquale (1843), considered his finest comic opera.

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he Rossini-Bellini-Donizetti bel canto trio of composers relied on each other as welcome resources for innovation in opera stylization. Donizetti would be influenced by Bellini’s Il pirata (1827) and adapt his fioritura, a florid decoration of the vocal line that he converted into a more passionate expressive style. In addition, certainly anticipating Verdi, he shed

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declamatory elements which served to make his melodies more lyrical. He more extensively used choruses and ensembles, which had experienced such monumental success in Rossini’s operas. And he modified his cabalettas, those lively bravura concluding sections of arias or duets which are designed to show off a singer’s virtuosity. His innovations ingeniously provided more expressiveness and sentimentality. Although bel canto demanded singing with beauty, elegance, flexibility, an assured technique, and a certain degree of bravura, virtuosity, and vocal acrobatics, in most instances there was less emphasis on dramatic elements. As a result, in general, the dramatic intensity of many bel canto librettos receives minor praise from our modern music-drama-centered audiences. (In the bel canto tradition, drama and dramatic continuity were generally secondary considerations to the art of singing.) In retrospect, many bel canto librettos are considered humdrum and hackneyed, even though an abundant number of them were written by extremely talented and original craftsmen. Nevertheless, it has been the freshness of their underlying music that has compelled many operagoers to overlook the librettos. Contemporary champions of the bel canto tradition have proven that there can be much more drama in some of these works than had ever been suspected. It is in the bel canto style that the voice and vocal line, together with vocal fireworks, virtuosity, and bravura, became the preeminent features of the art form. First and foremost, the art of singing was the preeminent feature, and the art of singing became a science. As a consequence, melody dominated, and by necessity, the orchestra generally became subdued when the singer was singing, regardless of what was going on dramatically. To the Italians, going back to the sixteenth century when the Camerata invented modern opera, the human voice was considered the noblest and most ideal musical instrument, an instrument capable of expressing

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the entire range of human emotions and passions, aspirations, yearnings, and desires. So in bel canto, voice and melody became the vital essence and soul of the art form. The opera’s inherent drama, dramatic effects, and expressive components are created specifically through the singer’s vocal technique and vocal inflection. Therefore, drama in bel canto operas is achieved through the singer’s vocal dynamics in which coloratura passages are bent and flexed, stretched, speeded up, or slowed down. Bel canto opera is at its best when it delivers vocal fireworks, and when performed intelligently and with artistic integrity, it inherently provides dramatic poignancy and eloquence. It is the skillful use of the voice that provides the dramatic intensity. Those three great masters of bel canto, Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, have left a legacy of operas for posterity. The preeminence of their works on our contemporary stage remains proof that the art form is not only captivating, but is a classic art form that is capable of continuous rejuvenation.

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onizetti’s Don Pasquale, his 64thopera, is alleged to have been originally based on Ben Jonson’s play The Silent Woman. A generation before Donizetti attacked his version of the story, a libretto was written by the poet Angelo Anelli for Stefano Pavesi’s opera Ser Marcantonio, and ultimately became the basis for his Don Pasquale. Donizetti himself was instrumental in creating the text for his own opera adaptation of the story, working in collaboration with Giovanni Ruffini. Eventually, Ruffini felt that the composer had altered his text so drastically that he refused to publish it under his own name. One of Donizetti’s greatest assets was that his compositional muse worked at lightning speed. For example, he supposedly composed L’elisir d’amore within two weeks and Lucia di

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Lammermoor in about five weeks. Legend reports that Donizetti composed Don Pasquale in a remarkably short two weeks. In those days, the orchestration would be completed afterwards, and for this particular opera it was completed during its rehearsals. Donizetti composed rapidly, and often completed over two operas per year. But his greatest asset was that he was trained to think in terms of complete musical structures. Like many composers then and now, Donizetti plagiarized his own music. It is rumored that Donizetti was a master of musical file maintenance. Supposedly, he kept a neatly organized index of unused musical material as well as scraps and brief sketches of pieces that were not fully developed. Therefore, it was a sacrilege to let an unused note go astray. One could speculate that had Donizetti lived in our technical age and had the advantage of data storage and retrieval, he probably would hold an “Opera Hall of Fame” record for operas composed. Many elements for Don Pasquale were adapted from material that he had originally written for other works and later abandoned. The Don Pasquale chorus of servants is but one example. Nevertheless, all of his music for Don Pasquale, whether previously written or not, contains a vibrant mixture of freshness, originality, and piquancy. Don Pasquale was composed for performance at the Théâtre Italien in Paris. It had an instant success at its premiere on January 4, 1843, particularly aided by its inclusion of an allstar quartet of renowned Italian singing-actors. Critics and public alike relished its elegant charm and pointed wit, and immediately judged it a masterpiece, further flattering the work as comparable to Rossini’s acclaimed opera buffa, The Barber of Seville. Its popularity has never diminished, and it has remained a perennial favorite in the international repertory.

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Paris’s Théâtre Italien owed its existence to Napoleon, who never failed to admit his weakness for Italian music. The theater became the center for Italian opera in Paris, and it offered some of the finest singing in all of Europe. Rossini had retired from opera composing after his William Tell (1829), but during the 1820s, the Théâtre Italien had become a bastion for his most popular operas: Tancredi, Mosè in Egitto, The Barber of Seville, Otello, and La Cenerentola. During the next decade, as Donizetti and Bellini were approaching their artistic maturity, the Théâtre Italien became their principal venue. Such works as Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux and Bellini’s La sonnambula and I puritani were among the many performed there.

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on Pasquale is a heartfelt comedy with a warm blend of humor and tenderness. Its characterizations are classic in the genre of opera buffa, but far from farcical stereotypes. The comic genre of opera buffa was more realistic and presented more mundane characters in everyday situations than its counterpart, opera seria, or serious opera, which generally featured characters in historical, legendary, or mythological stories. Opera buffa owed its provenance to the commedia dell’arte genre–literally translated, “art play.” The tradition originated in the Renaissance when troupes of strolling players would perform in market places and streets. Performers traditionally wore masks in order to conceal their identities. Their personal protection was necessitated by the fact that they were satirizing and ridiculing their contemporary world. Performers clowned, insulted, and ridiculed every aspect of society and its institutions (and would characterize humorous or hypocritical situations that involved cunning servants, scheming doctors, and duped masters.)

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In order to draw attention to themselves, they generally wore exaggerated and comical costumes. Plots would contain very few lines of set dialogue, and much of their performance contained spontaneous improvisation. The standard characters were the Harlequin, Columbine, and Pulchinello. In Italy, the characters became affectionately known as zanni—no doubt the root of our English word “zany,” meaning funny in a crazy or silly way, or a silly person, or a clown or buffoon. During the eighteenth century, following the tradition of the commedia dell’arte, the intermezzo developed in the Italian theater. The intermezzo was a short play with music that was presented between the acts of a serious drama. The commedia dell’arte and the intermezzo genres were the theatrical predecessors that would develop into the opera buffa. Pergolesi’s La serva padrona (1733) became one of the earliest opere buffe, and almost a century later, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville would serve as the model for all future opere buffe. It would be followed by Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Don Pasquale, Verdi’s Falstaff, and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. In the pre-French Revolution and the preRomantic era, the aristocracies identified with the extremely popular opera seria genre, perceiving in its lofty personalities a flattering portrait of themselves. The opera seria utilized massive scenes of pageantry married to highly complex, ornamented arias that would exploit the virtuosity of individual singers. But the lower classes, in an almost uncanny extension of the classical commedia dell’arte genre, preferred the satire of the opera buffa genre. Opera buffa, like its predecessor, the commedia dell’arte, was usually concerned with love intrigues involving cuckolds, deceiving wives, and scheming servants—an artistic democratization in which the lower classes, mostly through comedy and satire, poked fun at

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their masters and vented their frustrations and chagrin. The opera buffa preferred simplicity in design—generally a few characters moving against an uncomplicated setting with commensurate simplicity of underlying melodies and tunes. Yet, it would contain much stylistic contrast in its music; the use of rhythmic, staccato passages to emphasize coquettish moods; the exploitation of patter songs; and extended finales concluding each act. Mozart used the inherent style of the opera buffa genre to reflect the changing social and political upheavals awakened by the Enlightenment, the demise of the ancien régime that would vanish at the end of the eighteenth century. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro is considered one of the greatest opere buffe in which he mirrored his contemporary political and social conflicts with incomparable musical characterizations. His heroes became nonaristocratic characters such as Figaro and Susanna, and his antiheroes became contemptible aristocrats such as Count Almaviva and Dr. Bartolo. In Don Pasquale, Donizetti shares Mozart’s genius to honestly portray and mirror very human characters, values, and emotions. In Don Pasquale, in particular, like his towering predecessor, Mozart, he provides both musical and dramatic tastefulness, elegance, and refinement that never bears the faintest hint of vulgarity.

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lthough Don Pasquale is indeed a masterful example of the old Italian opera buffa, it was composed close to the middle of the nineteenth century, actually a time when the popularity of opera buffa was diminishing. As a late version of the genre, its comedy incorporates new nineteenth-century Romantic values and

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ideals. Yet to be composed were other great examples of the opera buffa tradition: Verdi’s Falstaff and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. As a work from the Romantic period, it reflects its contemporary ideology, a sense of freedom and feeling. Underneath the surface of the previous century’s Enlightenment, it was man, not woman, who possessed the great gift of reason. Inferentially, the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason suggested an attitude of contempt and distaste for women, at times considering them fleshly, unspiritual, devoid of reason, faithless, and fickle. The superficial gallantry of the era could almost be interpreted as a disguise for a deep-seated hatred and fear of women, which can be interpreted in hindsight as clearly anti-feminist. In many respects, the Romantic period which followed represented a backlash to the Enlightenment. Woman was liberated and was elevated to a new status. Goethe had ennobled woman in his ending of Faust: “Das EwigWeibliche Zieht uns hinan.” (“The eternal woman draws us onward.”) In effect, he glorified the woman who could redeem man’s egotism and narcissism through her unbounded love, understanding, wisdom, and sacrifice. Beethoven’s Leonore in the opera Fidelio became that same redeeming woman. Later, Richard Wagner became preoccupied with noble, redeeming women: Elizabeth in Tannhäuser, Senta in The Flying Dutchman, and Brünnhilde in the Ring operas.

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he principal female character in Don Pasquale, Norina, certainly reflects those new Romantic era sensibilities. In Act I, Scene 2, Norina reads a romantic tale about chivalry, and implies that it is silly and foolish. She can learn nothing from those heroines from the age of chivalry. Norina’s commentary about her novel, “Quel guardo il cavaliere” (“That

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look stabbed the cavalier in his heart”), leads to her magical aria “So anch’io la virtù magica” (“The magic virtue of a glance, I know on each occasion”). Norina speaks as a modern and independent woman of her times, a liberated woman with a sense of personal self-confidence, conviction, and individualism. She is a widow, a woman with a past, and she thinks hopefully and with confidence for a happy future. She is a spunky woman who wants to control her own life and decide her own destiny. She knows what she wants. She wants Ernesto and is determined to succeed. She intuitively knows men, and she knows the power of her persuasive charm. She is confident in her own abilities to stimulate love and make men fall in love with her. Norina is very much a nineteenth-century Romantic era archetype, a woman liberated in the sense that she believes she can control her own life, and a woman far removed from the stigmas of Enlightenment ideology. At that critical moment in Act III, Scene 1, Donizetti is at his musical best, providing tasteful humor but also very human sensitivities. Don Pasquale tries to prohibit Norina from going off to the theater. Norina becomes rude and slaps Pasquale. Suddenly, the musical atmosphere changes. It is sad and moving music, crying, weeping, and sobbing as it slows to a larghetto and modulates into the minor mode. Norina has hurt Pasquale both physically and emotionally. She immediately displays sensitivity, sympathy, and a capacity for gentleness and caring: “È duretta la lezione” (“The lesson is a hard one, but necessary”). Norina is a sensitive woman of the Romantic era whose feelings transcend the comic charade of the plot. She expresses compassion and sentiments of pity as well as contrition. Don Pasquale laments, “È finita, Don Pasquale” (“It is all over for Don Pasquale”). Norina regrets the pain she is causing him, but

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she knows she must continue the charade and sacrifice her deep feelings for the greater good; if not, she will lose everything she has been working for.

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asquale is not an evil man and not an antihero, but he is a foolish man with illusions about himself, and in that sense, the moral of the story is that Pasquale deserves to be punished and taught a lesson for his stupidity. He is treated cruelly and he engenders sympathy—certainly when his plans for his marriage end up literally with a slap in the face. It requires genius to present this story with a lightness of touch, a sprightfulness and frothy humor, and at the same time, maintain a delicate balance between the comic and the pathetic. Pasquale, like Verdi’s Falstaff, experiences humiliation, but his victimization evokes sympathy and compassion, as well as displeasure of his tormentors. But in the end, its message and moralistic overtones must be triumphant.

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on Pasquale’s entire action is dominated by its four principals. By design, Donizetti’s music is organically limited to expand no farther than a quartet. A chorus has but one moment of prominence in the last act, and then appears as background for Ernesto’s serenade and the rondo-finale. With all of Donizetti’s sparkling music for this score, the opera does not have a single big smash hit number; there is no Sextet as in Lucia di Lammermoor, no “Una furtiva lagrima” as in L’elisir d’amore, or a Salute to France as in La fille du régiment. But Don Pasquale, indeed, has what many consider a centerpiece. For the opera’s Vienna premiere, the composer added the comic Act III

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buffo patter duet between Pasquale and Malatesta, “Cheti, cheti, immantinente,” a piece Donizetti presumably borrowed from a discarded section of his unperformed L’ange de Nisida. Without question, this buffo duet never fails to bring down the house. In this scene, Malatesta proceeds to advise the agitated, confused, and presumably betrayed Pasquale. The scene starts with a conspiratorial air, but ends in a patter song sung repeatedly on a single note (middle C) as rapidly as tongues and lips will allow. Patter songs are tongue twisters at presto speed. An art in itself, requiring an acute sense of comic timing in order for the singer to make the words intelligible, the patter song requires a vocal virtuosity equivalent to words coming out of a typewriter at breakneck speed. In its practical sense, patter is nothing more or less than rapidfire articulation, similar to those popular tonguetwisters “She sells seashells at the seashore” or “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” In most of those classic opere buffe, the idea of patter is to represent old busybodies, usually comic basses who are chattering and grumbling incessantly. For those comic opera composers who followed the Rossini role model, patter songs were de rigueur, like Dr. Dulcamara’s patter in Donizetti’s own L’elisir d’amore. And Gilbert wrote delicate patter words which Sullivan cleverly married to the English opera buffa.

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on Pasquale’s comedy is a time-honored and ageless plot; numerous comic operas have been written about elderly men who want to marry much younger women and become frustrated by their own silliness. In this great achievement of Donizetti, the traditional story is endowed with a magnificent blend of wry humor and gracious tenderness. If man is capable of doing stupid things when he is in love, in this Don Pasquale story aging man is

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capable of doing foolish things when he is in love, or thinks he is in love. Good comedy is not always what does happen, but what could happen. “A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.” Molière, Les Femmes savantes, 1672

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