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That Donizetti’s comedy Don Pasquale should be one of his most famous works is perhaps ironic, since most of his other works are tragedies.
It’s so well proportioned and cracking with so much wit that its place in the repertoire is deserved, even if the composer’s reputation is better served by revivals of serious rarities such as Dom Sebastien.
This is another worthwhile release from Deutsche Grammophon’s ‘Opera House’ series, and to increase the (already outstanding) value for money, the short one-act opera Il campanello di notte fills up the second CD.
These are first-time releases on CD from the mid-1960s, from Florence (Pasquale) and Venice (Il campanello), where the orchestras were both in good form under the conductor Ettore Gracis.
Gracis’ pacing of the comedic scenes in both operas is superb, with Il campanello a particular delight. It describes the wedding night of an apothecary named Don Annibale, who has to leave the next morning for urgent business. His wife Serafina had been going out with Enrico, who was unfaithful to her but still loves her. Enrico arrives in disguise at the wedding party and prolongs it with a jaunty song.
During the night, he persistently turns up at the front door in different disguises to ring the apothecary bell of the title (The Night Bell), which Annibale is obliged to answer. Dawn comes, and Annibale has to leave on his journey, exhausted at never having reached his nuptial chamber.
A charming and brief work, it receives a fresh performance from all the cast. Alfredo Mariotti is especially delightful, with a big booming bass voice. He brings a chocolate tone to his cavatina (about the children he expects his wife to bear!) and leaves his mark on every number that he sings in. Enrico is sung with wit by Alberto Rinaldi, especially enjoying the scene where he dresses up as a Frenchman and an opera singer in order to keep Annibale awake. Emma Bruo de Sanctis is rather a blot on a perfect recording, however; her singing as Serafina is unrefined and her voice is inclined to wobble above the stave.
The main offering on the recording is Don Pasquale, which is as good as you could hope to hear. Gracis has a no-nonsense approach to the score, resulting in a jolly performance. The Chorus and Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale in Florence sing and play with gusto, and the singers combine a sense of fun and just enough seriousness to make this a fun, but human, piece of story-telling.
Again, Alfredo Mariotti’s full bass dominates the show, with Pasquale definitely centre-stage in his own opera. Ugo Benelli mixes a silvery bel canto voice with a dramatic edge that makes Ernesto the ideal rival to Pasquale in this recording.
The delight, however, comes from Anna Maccianti as Norina (a shame she wasn’t cast in Il campanello as well). The clarity of her voice in her cavatina is matched with a vivacity in the Norina/Malatesta duet of the Act 1 finale. In the choral numbers, Maccianti’s voice sails above the others’, soaring high like a flute (especially in the wonderful Act II concertato finale). And Mario Basiola is an excellent, scheming Dottor Malatesta.
Donizetti is a most underrated composer. This stylishly-performed pairing of Pasquale and Il campanello reveals him at his comic best, so why not give it a try?
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