Donizetti - Don Pasquale / Corbelli, Mei, De Candia, Siragusa, Gatti, Korsten, Teatro Lirico Cagliari
The story of the old fool who is thoroughly cured of his eagerness to marry and relieved to be able to pass the young devil of a woman on to her true love is as old as comedy itself and has been used frequently by composers from Pergolesi to Richard Strauss and has its roots in the renaissaince Commedia dell'arte. Through his music Donizetti elevates the story of the duped bachelor to a level which it was never to reach again. Donizetti far exceeds this tradition, however, because with his version he broadens the classic Italian opera buffa to a character comedy; the characters are no longer types but take on individual images in their different and varied portrayals.Donizetti’s music is the guarantee that Don Pasquale remains a comic opera sui generis. Coloratura arias, cavatinas and romances, duets and ensembles reveal a musical wit which puts the opera on a level with Rossini’s Barber of Seville and Verdi’s Falstaff.