Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale is an opera buffa in three acts, which premiered in Paris in 1843. A small cast, a limited role of the choir and a realistic plot, the action of which can take place in one room, make this work easily adaptable to the needs of a smaller implementation. Its idea, although born out of necessity (the closure and limitation of the activities of cultural institutions during a pandemic), allows one to look at this opera closely, with perversity and tenderness, to discover its new potential. In the version shortened to several dozen minutes, the characters seem to function more intensively, against the background of the piano the voices sound distinctly, as if more human or real, and even a bit private.
The production of this staging was inspired by the series "Dynasty". In Poland in the nineties, it caught the imagination of both adults and children gathered together in front of televisions. Although the 1980s presented in "Dynasty" may seem from today's perspective an epoch as historic as the mid-nineteenth century, the memory of these realities with their aesthetics and sensitivity is equally strong for the older and younger part of the audience.
In order to focus our attention on music and stage activities, we decided to give up subtitles - simultaneous translation of arias and dialogues from Italian into Polish. The need to follow the text, look away (and even tear your head), which has become a permanent part of contemporary opera productions, in my opinion makes it impossible to perceive opera as a theatrical work. The audience listens to the music and reads the text, analyzing the scenery with a cursory glance, while the gesture, relations between the characters expressed in their being on stage and towards each other, the temperament manifested in the stage movement, in the way of walking and looking - so much results from the gaze, even if we analyze them from a distance of ten meters or from the last balcony. Technology of displaying the translated libretto, its thoughtless ease of use, relieved a large part of the contemporary audience from the need to read the content of the opera, even a summary, before the performance and displaced the earlier tradition of singing the classics in Polish - sometimes insulting prosody, sometimes damaging the logic or ignoring the sense of the original, but nevertheless conducive to the audience's concentration on experiencing the synthesis of words, music and a moving, living image. The above doubts led to an inspiring stage and dramatic solution - we decided to introduce the character of Narrator, Norina's older alter ego, who tells the story in Polish, explaining the course of events in subsequent scenes. This "technical" procedure also has inspiring interpretative consequences. First, it introduces you to this "traditional", i.e. patriarchally conditioned, a world ruled by men (whether of the original itself or a staging inspired by the "Dynasty") by a woman's perspective - even if she still uses a different text or a cultural cliché and stereotype, such shifting the focus to the only character in this opera encourages us to follow her strategy of playing out her own fate and gaining independence. More than one heroin - whether in a classic or even a soap opera - although born most often from male fantasies, ultimately lives thanks to women, singers and actresses, sometimes becoming a symbol of strength, determination, emancipation and self-determination. Secondly, on the meta-theatrical level, apart from the story behind the story, the Narrator is the Stage Manager - a person extremely important in the theater, having control (and some kind of power) over the course of each performance, though at the same time working in secret. So we adopted a creative strategy to transform the role of the stage manager into the foreground. We also treated the service at the Don Pasquale Palace in a similar way - the boy and the girl perform the function of the show's technical staff, but thanks to the choreography they tell an alternative love story, simple and free from intrigue. Thirdly, the narrator's story-telling in retrospect, thirty, forty or even fifty years, justifies the fragmented form of the plot, which we have subjected to numerous shortcuts. After all, memory preserves the most intense experiences, moments that are sometimes released from logical narrative and require re-experiencing, reflection and exaltation. Analyzing the libretto and, above all, its musical implementation, we chose these fragments of the opera, which, in retrospect, Norina could remember in a special way and build her story on them after many years. Repeating this story is reliving it, there is something ritual about it, something magical and related to summoning ghosts - bringing back on stage figures that have passed and the world that no longer exists ...
From the above assumptions, the concept of a musical performance based on Donizetti's work is created, which is an attempt at an intimate and equally intense experience of the opera form in general and this specific story, the culminations and energy of which unfold not only at the libretto level, i.e. a literary plot, but above all in music and vocal expression. In almost laboratory conditions - although saving resources is not synonymous with minimalism or poor theater - it is possible to observe how the composer's invention meets the talent and sensitivity of soloists and soloists. It is in music that there is real, psychological and emotional content - we look for it together during rehearsals. This is another reason to subject the necessary shortcuts rather to recitatives, situational dramaturgy, which supports the plot - the Narrator will briefly tell about it. There is more time to 'experience' through singing.
It is still a story full of comedy, sometimes mocking or even coarse, although in this "intimate intensity" it is possible to look at individual characters and their relationships with a bit of empathy. The need to love and be loved at any age, though painfully ridiculed in Donizetti's opera, is very genuine and sometimes reveals human vulnerability. The issue of empathy also applies to intergenerational relationships, often marked by a lack of mutual understanding and respect, stubbornness, condescending treatment and the desire to control - both younger by older people and vice versa. Rembrandt's painting "The Return of the Prodigal Son", which in this staging hangs in the Don Pasquale living room (and a fragment of which is shown on the poster), could be a model of good behavior, but the owner sees in it only its market value.
Reflection on Rembrandt's painting harmonizes with a more general question: how do we perceive classic operas today? Is the message contained therein able to influence our sensitivity, awaken empathy towards ourselves and others, and shape our worldview? It is difficult to come to terms with the indifference to art and culture that societies or governments that represent them show in various situations. By staging an opera performance in these difficult conditions, we invariably believe that art is indispensable in our everyday life, and its sensitizing power makes us become better people.
