Don Pasquale

St. Petersburg Music Hall Theatre

As a part of the 4th To See Music Festival of Musical Theatres

Artistic Director of the Music Hall Theatre Fabio Mastrangelo, an Italian by origin, has initiated a new production. For the first time, he has decided to put an opera performance on stage of the theatre, having chosen a comic work by his compatriot Gaetano Donizetti Don Pasquale for this purpose. The Don Pasquale opera buffa, which was composed within 11 days, is one of the composer’s most successful works and remains enduringly popular.

 ‘Those who marry in old age have completely lost their marbles’ — these are the final words of the Don Pasquale opera. This ironic saying is a wise summary of misadventures of the main character, a rich elderly bachelor, who decided to marry and was deceived by his nephew Ernesto and Ernesto’s young fiancée Norina.

Don Pasquale is a typical example of the opera buffa genre. This is a magnificent sample of comedy, which is impressive even when used in such an academic art as opera, and the phenomenal success of this work is a fair tribute to the talent of its creator, the maestro Donizetti. The composer provided a highly precise musical definition for each character. Both the music and general concept of the performance awake the imagination of the director and designer and push them into experimenting. In his staging, the world-known Stage Director Hans-Joachim Frey (Austria) will show the audience sincerity and dramatic intensity of this comedy, which seems to be light-hearted at first sight. As envisioned by the director, the opera’s setting will be moved to Rome of the 1960s. The theatre’s stage will feature re-created romantic Italian surroundings, inspired by the atmosphere of films by the master of Italian cinema Federico Fellini. To ensure immersion into Rome’s sunny atmosphere, the Stage Designer Petr Okunev and Video Designer Vadim Dulenko will use eye-catching original video footage. In addition, projections will help to reflect an intricate inner world of the main characters on the screen. Movable scenery will be combined with video projections, which will make the performance extremely spectacular and dynamic.

The performance will boast a particular charm and some bohemian features thanks to costumes made by the Costume Designer Elena Badmaeva, a fashionable St. Petersburg couturier, who has also been inspired by looks from the films La Dolce Vita and Le notti di Cabiria by Fellini.

The audience will see a feast of life and theatre since the performance staged by the Music Hall Theatre has a funny plot and is full of subtle humour and comic disguise situations. The music by Donizetti lets the stage characters, who look as if they have come from commedia dell'arte, sparkle with incessant vigour. Mean, ridiculous, and charismatic Pasquale looks like a true Pantalone, while his nephew Ernesto resembles a permanently heartbroken and enamoured Pierrot. As for the smart trickster Malatesta, akin to ‘Brighella’, and the charming, but calculating ‘Colombine’ Norina, they team up for a dazzling duet, building up the suspense of this performance.