Any sentient person watching Donizetti’s Don Pasquale today is caught in a double bind. Stock characters behave appallingly. The young-in-love leading couple taunt the old bachelor of the title whose failing is to have money and no one to spend it on. Psychological bullying towards him is topped off with a physical blow – so shocking that the irrepressible music stops for a moment. Maybe a few fastidious souls in that first audience at La Scala, Milan in 1843 also squirmed, but to them the story was familiar, rooted in commedia dell’arte. The bind comes in the music. Its wit and emotional range express only warmth, humour and the fragility of human nature.
Even so, the work’s charms have eluded me. Damiano Michieletto’s stylish and updated staging, new for the Royal Opera House in 2019, was a turning point. With Bryn Terfel masterly and comic in the title role, and a cast that had its own potent chemistry, I finally got it. Now the production has returned for its first revival, with a lot more fuss and busyness, and conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti. I am almost back where I was. The cast, reliant on a central quartet with minimal use of chorus, is strong but as yet lacks comedic crackle.
