A horny old man gets absolutely played by everyone he trusts. Opera buffa at its messiest.
“Foolish indeed is he who marries in old age.” Thus ends Don Pasquale: with a wise dictum not lacking in irony that sums up the disappointments of its hero, a rich bachelor keen to marry who is deceived by his nephew Ernesto and his young bride-to-be Norina. First performed in Paris in 1843, at the turning point of several eras, Don Pasquale, a composite and varied work, is the apotheosis of opera buffa. Performed for the first time at the Paris Opera, the production has been entrusted to the Italian director, Damiano Michieletto, who transports us directly to the sincerity and dramatic splendour at the heart of an apparently light‑hearted work.
Direction
Michieletto strips away fusty tradition for raw emotional clarity.
Acting
Pertusi's Pasquale: pathetic, hilarious, devastatingly human.
Production
Palais Garnier as character — decadence mocking itself.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Donizetti wrote this in twelve days flat — allegedly while recovering from a venereal disease. The energy tracks.
This 2018 staging marked the first time Paris Opera itself produced Don Pasquale — nearly 175 years after its world premiere. The French finally claimed their own inheritance.
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