Pittsburgh Opera's 'Don Pasquale' soars in spots, falters in others
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Liam Moran plays the title role in the Pittsburgh Opera production of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," being staged at Pittsburgh CAPA High School auditorium.
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For local opera lovers, Saturday might have been labeled Donizetti day. The composer's best-known work, "Lucia di Lammermoor," was aired as part of the Metropolitan Opera's HDhigh-definition telecast series in the afternoon (also carried on radio by WQED-FM). In the evening Pittsburgh Opera opened its resident artist production of "Don Pasquale" in the Pittsburgh CAPA High School Auditorium, Downtown.
"Don Pasquale" was especially welcome, as it has been out of the company's repertory since the 1978-79 season. It's an ebullient, melodious and funny opera in which the four main characters are types derived from the traditional Italian opera buffa. Given the up-close and personal atmosphere of CAPA's pleasant 400-seat theater, Eric Einhorn staged the work with a focus on detail that made the protagonists unusually credible.
The title character, instead of the portly old bachelor looking for a pretty wife, is here a trim 19th-century intellectual obsessed with botany in a house filled with bell jars and plants. His nephew Ernesto is no romantic hero bybut rather a ne'er-do-well poet expecting his rich uncle to support his Bohemian lifestyle. Norina, Ernesto's true love, who enters into a fake marriage with Pasquale to teach him a lesson, is a liberated Victorian woman who wants to be a novelist. In theatrical terms, the director's concept expands our insights and enhances the elemental plot. The young cast, along with an excellent chorus of only eightpersons people, makes the drama utterly convincing.
- Where: Pittsburgh Opera at Pittsburgh CAPA High School Auditorium, Downtown
- When: Tonight, 7 p.m.; Friday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m.
- Tickets: Sold out
Musically it's another story. The vocal writing is very difficult, demanding consummate virtuosity and technical command, while the ensemble work -- vocal and instrumental -- calls for rhythmic crispness and precision of attack from first note to last. These requirements were only intermittently met in Saturday's opening-night performance.
The problems began with conductor Glenn Lewis, who had insufficient control of the 35-piece orchestra, and too little vitality in his beat. The delightful overture lacked sparkle, and intricate moments later on found the pit out of sync with the singers on stage.
Liam Moran sang Pasquale's music smoothly and with clear Italian diction, but he was too often drowned out by the orchestra. Best of the singers was Jonathan Beyer, as Dr. Malatesta, the catalyst of the plot. Already a polished vocalist, Beyer sang his familiar "Bella sicome" aria with an even scale and admirable legato, then projected voice and personality with strength in the group scenes. The fast double-voiced patter of the Pasquale-Malatesta duet was a high point.
Deborah Selig missed the mark on the high Cs of Norina's opening aria, but she warmed up as the opera progressed and managed to delineate character with her voice as well as her actions. Ernesto's high-lying lines were sadly beyond the rudimentary technique of Carlos Feliciano (who will alternate in this role with fellow Opera Center tenor Dean Kokanos). His singing lacked any sense of line and phrasing. High notes were painfully pushed or -- when soft singing was called for -- faked in an awkward falsetto.
It should be noted that the singers were coached in Italian diction by the venerable Claudia Pinza, and the results were noticeable and gratifying.
First Published February 10, 2009 12:00 am
