Beautiful Opera Buffa at Lyric

If you have never seen an opera, Donizetti’s 1843 Don Pasquale is a great place to start. It’s light and funny and the music is almost singable. And if you love opera, the current Mariame Clément directed version now on at the Lyric Opera of Chicago is a wonderful night of comedy and top drawer delights with a solid ensemble of singers that bring this plot to life. With Enrique Mazzola conducting, the music keeps this production full of amusements rolling along sometimes at a very quick clip.  Set and Costume designer Julie Hansen aided by the lighting design of Bernd Purkrabek gives us yards of eye candy, starting with the opening image of baritone Ian Rucker as the conniving Dr. Malatesta. He is sluched in a well lit chair,contemplating, then rises and begins to traverse his community. The set rotates to give us rooms where Malatesta slides in and alters the environment, shifts the action, observes the characters.  And then the fun begins.

The story is fairly simple: Don Pasquale does not approve of his nephew Ernesto’s (the handsome Alberto Roberts in his U.S. debut)  choice of the poor widow Norina as a partner so he is determined to marry himself and possibly produce an heir.  Well Malatesta is only too happy to  help the old man and he presents his fresh from the convent sister Sofronia (Norina in disguise) in a plot to help Norina marry Ernesto. Don Pasquale discovers, upon marrying Sofronia/Norina that she has turned into a spendthrift nightmare who is never home and then Don Pasquale wants to be rid of her.  Malatesta reveals the ruse and Don Pasquale is happy to hand her over to Ernesto.  

The entire evening is filled with well timed physical comedy with a giggle and a guffaw every few minutes.  But the big gift of the show is soprano Ying Fang in her role debut as Norina. She skips along the score and plays with the comedy like a master morphing from the convent girl to the wife from hell in an instant. She is finding so much joy in playing this character.  Misha Kiria’s Don Pasquale is a doddering fool and no match for the clever Norina and the manipulations of Malatesta. The Lyric chorus arrives as a white clad town to witness and comment on the action.  They look like a stunning frieze and sing like a wall of music, looking like a town out for a lark.  Actor Sarah Sapperstein provides more humor without a sound as Don Pasquale’s only servant, the maid who has seen everything. All ends well and you head out into the night with a lighter heart and a smile on your face.  Everyone has had a wonderful time at the opera!

Don Pasquale is playing 11/18 (matinee), 11/21,11/24 and 11/27(Sydney Mancasola will be Norina at this final performance) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, 20 N Wacker Drive in Chicago. For tickets and lots of information on the production go to https://www.lyricopera.org/shows/upcoming/2026-27/don-pasquale/

 Photo by Kyle Flubacker

For  reviews go to https://www.theatreinchicago.com/