The ritual humiliation of a randy old man is not every modern audience’s idea of a good laugh, but from Falstaff to the Merchant’s Tale literature seems full of them. Don Pasquale is just such an over-proud, over-fed, vain and libidinous patriarch. In Donizetti’s comic opera he gets his comeuppance from his determination to stand in the way of young love and help himself to fresher fruits than are his due. Youth smugly conspires to trip the old buffer up, and it is to the great credit of the spry comic acting of this company that they manage to wring real laughs from what might today seem a rather cruel and self serving set up.
      Keel Watson is the rotund bachelor and with the help of a prodigious rump and portly demeanour keeps the audience amused from the start. Throughout the overture he conducts the orchestra from the stage in an overblown and ridiculous manner, mimicking Dominic Wheeler’s real conducting from the pit. Agnes Treplin’s set displays Don Pasquale’s enormous self regard with an office wall plastered with gigantic pictures of himself in Toscanini like poses, and the patter he trades here with Malatesta, played competently by Owen Gilhooly, is crisp, fast, and intelligible at exhilarating speeds.
      Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is decorated with light, bright and pretty songs, and Mary O’Sullivan as the young bride Norina blossoms in the role of the soprano. She brings a confident comic touch and an extremely impressive top register to a part which can be difficult. She must hold the love interest of the young Ernesto, and keep the sympathy of the audience whilst marrying the aged fool Don Pasquale and taking him for the ride of his life. And while the sweetness of her voice and the relish with which she enjoins the conniving plot seem slightly at odds, her arched brow and self amused smile bring a sparkle of Sex And The City to this Roman comedy.
      The low point in the production is Ernesto. Nicholas Sharrat does not much bring much heart or swagger to the role, and one is left feeling that after eating poor Don Pasquale alive the eager Norina will be moving straight on to consume him. He manages passably well with the beautiful Ernesto’s Lament in Act II his lack of force and precision throughout does not compare well with the technical proficiency of the rest of the cast.
      William Oldroyd’s robust staging of this delicately scored opera is avowedly comic, almost pantomimic and though he does succeed in amusing the Sadlers Wells audience with a tired old joke, it must be wondered whether attention to some of the subtler aspects of Don Pasquale are sacrificed in return. Nevertheless, the orchestra under Wheeler’s direction provide dynamic and colourful rendition and in Mary O’Sullivan the production brings an extremely promising performer to a central role on the London stage.
Charlie Taylor