Yes, it's a poor attempt at a humorous title.
However, the opera in question, Don Pasquale, presented by the Hawai’i Opera Theatre last tuesday was a rollicking good piece of fun. The laughter started during the overture and continued right to the end. The cast received a well-deserved standing ovation and everyone left with a smile. How different from all those operas with sad and dramatic endings!
I don’t recall seeing this opera before though I’ve certainly heard it - or bits of it - on the radio. The impression left by live broadcasts - Don Pasquale getting his come uppance at the end - do no justice to a live performance if this one was anything to go by.
There are aspects of many operas that are by now “traditional” such as staging, and characterizations, and I do not know to what extent some or any of these were unique to the Hawai’i staging or customary in pretty much all productions.
In this production, members of the chorus (for I believe it was they) acted the parts of stage hands, moving props on and off stage at the start of each scene. As the curtain rose during the overture, it revealed stage hands caught unawares, as it were, and a stage totally unprepared for the show. There was much to-ing and fro-ing (and laughter), drops were lowered and raised, until just in the nick of time, all was ready.
Dr. Malatesta was hilariously presented with a new hairdo each time he appeared. In one scene, it was slicked and gelled out in front; in another, it was all in punkish spikes; in another, it was out to the side.
In the garden scene in Act II, members of the chorus wore flower pots on their heads and swayed in time to the music. This effect was initally a surprise for at first their bodies and faces were hidden and it appeared as if the back of the stage was arranged with colourful flowers. Until suddenly they all moved! By the time he appeared, then, it was no surprise - but no less comical - when Maltesta appeared with his hair coifed as a pineapple. (Sadly, I can find no pictures)
Apart from all this, the opera really worked because the cast worked. The acting, in particular from Kelly Markgraf and Valerian Runinski singing Dr Malatesta and Don Pasquale, respectively, was terrific. These are comic roles and the two singers played them to the hilt without sacrificing any quality in their voices. A minor complaint, though, was the volume form the orchestra which at times drowned out the singing. Ernesto was competently sung by George Dyer. And, lastly, but by no means least, the role of Norina/Sofronia was very well sung and acted by Evelyn Pollock. As the lone female singer on stage, she needed to assert herself in her role and that she did while also projecting her voice clearly.
For me, the fun didn’t quite end with the opera. It turned out that I was not the only patron who took the bus to get to the Concert Hall. So did many others (tourists also?) and, after the performance, we all made a bee-line for the bus stop located 100m or less in front of the Hall. A bus came along quite soon after I arrived. It was not my bus but other opera goers boarded and off the bus went. The fun part was the opera goers who, seeing the bus, didn’t bother to hurry up and seemed to expect that the driver would just wait while they dribbled over. Their complaints as they bus departed were loud! And then they all had to stand (it had rained, the seats were wet) in their evening finery until the next bus came along. Only, in Honolulu!?
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