Bitter Reflection

Gaetano Donizetti's final masterpiece Don Pasquale (his last opera Dom Sébastien, Roi du Portugal had a very mixed outcome at its premiere and has been seldom staged since then) has been missing from Rome's major opera house, the Teatro dell'Opera, for twelve years. Thus, the new production unveiled on 18 June 2013 (the basis for this review) was much awaited, especially because it had been entrusted to a winning team: Ruggero Cappuccio for stage direction (with his usual colleagues Carlo Savi for sets and Carlo Poggioli for costumes) and Bruno Campanella for musical direction. In the last two seasons, the Cappuccio-Campanella partnership has had major successes in L'Elisir d'Amore [Drama and Comedy, 7 February 2011] and in Il Barbiere di Siviglia [All the Ingredients, 21 April 2012]. This time Cappuccio and his team missed the key point of the opera and, on the opening night, even received some boos from the generally phlegmatic and rather apathetic Rome audience...