From the left, Joshua Hopkins as Dr. Malatesta, Misha Kiria as Don Pasquale, and Simone Osborne as Norina in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Don Pasquale.Michael Cooper coopershoots.com/COC
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- Title: Don Pasquale
- Written by: Gaetano Donizetti, Giovanni Ruffini
- Director: Barbe & Doucet
- Actors: Misha Kiria, Joshua Hopkins, Simone Osborne and Santiago Ballerini
- Company: Canadian Opera Company
- Venue: Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
- City: Toronto
- Year: To May 18, 2024
The Canadian Opera Company opened its spring season Friday night with something fresh, funny and unexpectedly green: Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. This 1843 comedy, by the same composer who gave us Lucia di Lammermoor and Anna Bolena, is a sassy choice for the COC – even a bit overdue, since this is its first Pasquale in 30 years.
The story is dated, but cute. Old Don Pasquale says no when his nephew, Ernesto, asks permission to marry Norina; she’s smart, sure – we can tell because she’s reading a book when we first meet her – but not rich enough. So, Pasquale disinherits Ernesto, and decides instead to find a young bride of his own, to whom he can leave his estate.
Cue the schemes of Dr. Malatesta, who manages to fake a wedding between Pasquale and Norina, whom he’s passed off as his sister “Sofronia,” fresh from the convent. When “Sofronia” turns out to be a nightmare wife, Pasquale’s plans unravel and he relaxes his grip on his nephew. Everyone marries who they like, and Pasquale learns to enjoy the old bachelor life after all.
It’s the kind of show that needs a firm dose of ridiculousness to reinforce that Don Pasquale is a comedy, and it finds a perfect fit in the unmistakable style of acclaimed director-designer duo Barbe & Doucet. Together, set and costume designer André Barbe and stage director and choreographer Renaud Doucet have created more than 40 opera productions.
They imagine Don Pasquale in 1960s Rome, and there are almost no right angles at the Pensione Pasquale, the quaintly dilapidated hotel run by the titular Don. Everything we see is either funny (the impossible mess of hanging laundry), eye-popping (the mod, Eames chair-inspired lobby makeover), or confounding (the herd of green cat figurines scattered across the stage).
A few words on cats, I find myself inexplicably writing: Barbe & Doucet posit that “Don Pasquale’s real love is cats,” and that his tragedy is the sad fact that he is allergic to them. We learn all about it in the extremely 1960s Italian fotoromanzo that unfolds throughout the overture – a smart device, mirroring the overture’s function of giving us little tastes of the musical themes we’ll hear that night.
When the screen lifts and we first see the wonky Pensione Pasquale, it’s littered with those green cat figurines, an allergen-free alternative for the feline fan. And though it’s a bit of a random superimposition by Barbe & Doucet, it offers more comedic opportunities – such as Norina sporting cat ears for her fake wedding – while keeping the character of Don Pasquale intact. Green cat figurines? Why not?
Of course, green cats can’t sustain a full-length opera on their own, and in the case of Don Pasquale, it’s really all about the singing. Misha Kiria is a beautifully blustering Don Pasquale, his formidable frame lending a sort of gentle-giant quality to his outbursts. A true singing actor, Kiria rooted all his comedy in his voice, leaving him room to grow funnier and funnier as the acts progressed.
He delivered some of the most blindingly fast Italian patter that I’ve ever heard, alongside Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins as Dr. Malatesta. Hopkins, whom Torontonians may remember from the COC’s 2015 Barber of Seville, sounds in excellent form as the quick, savvy Malatesta (Italian for “sick head,” for anyone paying attention). Hopkins manages a gorgeous balance of rich, warm sound and fluid coloratura, saving energy to match Kiria’s breakneck patter.
As the lovers we root for, soprano Simone Osborne as Norina and tenor Santiago Ballerini as Ernesto make for a sweet-sounding pair with just the right amount of sass. When she’s not hilariously stomping her foot in feigned objection, Osborne sings with a fresh and agile sound that floats from florid lines to peppy zingers. In true bel canto style, Osborne uses her voice to remind us that Norina is a woman ahead of her time – in this case, literate and with a backbone.
Simone Osborne, left, as Norina and Misha Kiria as Don Pasquale in Don Pasquale. The opera was written in 1843, but the Canadian Opera Company's production imagines it set in in 1960s Rome at the quaintly dilapidated hotel run by the titular Don.Michael Cooper/COC
Ballerini’s Ernesto is a beautiful complement, his bold sound always ready to take soft-singing risks that are appreciated. He even manages a sort of Fred Armisen-type of fraught energy, a charming kind of tension that disappears in his stunning duet with Norina.
Like any great comic production, the highlights are often in the background. The COC Chorus was utterly brilliant here, flooding the stage with a thousand little character stories that left me wanting more. And perhaps it was because it came on the back of excellent comedic moments, but the Chorus’ pianissimo singing was truly stunning.
And big applause should also go to the supernumeraries, the silent actors who played the hilarious help at the Pensione Pasquale and who earned bigger and bigger laughs with each appearance. It all makes for a busy stage with plenty to look at, no doubt the kind of scene-stealing that will evolve with each performance.
The COC Orchestra under maestro Jacques Lacombe felt lush and lyric, but arguably not funny. There was something slack about the score, as though the snappy rhythms sagged; conversely, the singers didn’t seem to have enough time for true vocal fireworks, another cornerstone of this style of opera.
This production does seem to suffer from a lack of cohesion, despite such quality in all the elements. The singing is top-notch, the design is impressive, the comic moments are there; perhaps it was first-night caution, the kind of thing that will tighten and gel as the run of performances continues through May.
In the interest of consistency across all critics’ reviews, The Globe has eliminated its star-rating system in film and theatre to align with coverage of music, books, visual arts and dance. Instead, works of excellence will be noted with a critic’s pick designation across all coverage. (Television reviews, typically based on an incomplete season, are exempt.)