Embracing Don
Donizetti’s 1843 comic opera “Don Pasquale” has always been at the top of Spokane Opera’s to-do list. “It’s a delightful comedy and in the Top 10 of most-performed operas,” said Bill Graham, Spokane Opera’s executive director and the director of this production. “We’ve wanted to do it for quite a long time. We finally thought we had the right singers for the right roles.” Do they ever. Spokane’s resident professional opera company has always prided itself on luring top young national talent, and this production is no exception.
“The tenor role (Ernesto) is a difficult one, and we were fortunate that Russell Lamar Thomas was released to us from the Met,” said Graham, referring to New York’s Metropolitan Opera. “He’s under contract to them with the Young Artists Program, and they released him to come to Spokane because they thought the role was right for him.”
Thomas also just won a first-place award in one of the most prestigious competitions in opera, the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation International Voice Competition in New York.
That makes two cast members who have placed high in this competition. Heather Parker of Spokane placed second in 2002 and performed in the winner’s concert at Alice Tully Hall.
Parker has excelled in numerous Spokane Opera performances and recently completed a Young Artist Residency at the Seattle Opera.
“She’s absolutely right for the role of Norina,” said Graham. “She’s very gifted in comedy. And being in the bel-canto repertory, it’s right for her vocally.”
Rubin Casas, basso-baritone from Texas and New York, will sing the role of Don Pasquale. Max Mendez, a talented Spokane singer, will sing the role of the conniving doctor.
Conductor Joseph Mechavich, who just spent two months at the New York City Opera, will preside over the 14-piece orchestra.
“Don Pasquale” occupies an honored place in the history of opera. Donizetti is one of the most revered of Italian opera composers. He wrote such staples of the modern canon as “L’Elisir d’Amore” and “Lucia di Lammermoor.” Yet “Don Pasquale” is widely considered his masterpiece.
“A good case can be made for the claim of some writers that ‘Don Pasquale’ is Donizetti’s finest work,” says The New Encyclopedia of Opera. “Certainly it belongs with the greatest opera buffas (comic operas). While the formula is a familiar one, the musical treatment gives the work its originality and distinction. The music never lacks sparkle and freshness, and there is found here wonderful bel-canto writing.”
The story adheres to classic comic opera conventions. An old bachelor, Don Pasquale, disapproves of his nephew Ernesto’s love for the young widow Norina.
The family doctor, Dr. Malatesta, devises a plan to trick Don Pasquale into giving his approval to the match. He tells Don Pasquale that his beautiful (and imaginary) sister has fallen in love with him. The old man is so flattered that he decides to marry her, sight unseen.
The doctor approaches Norina and tells her his plan. She is to portray the beautiful sister and entice the Don into a mock marriage. Once “married,” she will make Don Pasquale’s life so miserable that he will be desperate to get out of the marriage.
It all works as planned. After the mock marriage, Norina acts the part of the dreadful shrew. Dr. Malatesta takes Don Pasquale aside and proposes a way to escape her clutches. He tells Don Pasquale that his new wife is secretly in love with Ernesto, and he arranges for Don Pasquale to catch them together in the garden. Far from angry, Don Pasquale is relieved that he can foist her off on Ernesto. He gives his consent for them to marry.
Graham will try something different in lieu of the usual chorus of servants. He will use two dancers from Ballet Spokane, Kari Jensen and Sho Rich, in two short, choreographed dances.
“They are supposed to be tormenting him (Don Pasquale), and what better way to do that than through movement?” said Graham.
The set, designed by George Caldwell, has an Italian villa look from about the 1880s.
Last year, the Spokane Opera introduced supertitles (an English translation displayed on a screen above the stage). It will employ supertitles again with this performance, which will be sung in the original Italian.
“For those who want the titles, it works,” said Graham. “And for those who want the original language, it works as well.”
Plenty is riding on this production, since it is the Spokane Opera’s only full production of the year. Spokane Opera has scaled back from two productions a year and is now doing more single events, such as its popular “Pasta and Puccini” dinner theater events and “Diamonds and Divas” gala. Graham said he hopes someday to go back to two full productions a year.
A pre-opera lecture by Kent Kimball about “Don Pasquale” will precede every performance at 6:45 p.m.