Artist

Admin

Conductor

Laurent Campellone

Stage director

Jean-Sébastien Ouellette

Set designer

Michel Baker

Singer

Soprano

Hélène Guilmette

Norina

Bass

Olivier Dejean

Don Pasquale

Tenor

Patrick Kabongo

Ernesto

Baritone

Hugo Laporte

Doctor Malatesta

Michel Desbiens

A notary

Lighting designer

Nyco Desmeules

Costume designer

Julie Morel

Video designer

Keven Dubois

Opéra de Québec

Others

Chœur de l'Opéra de Québec

Orchestra

Orchestre Symphonique de Québec

Italian

Quebec City

Canada

Grand Théâtre de Québec

Don Pasquale Donizetti

Public

French

Approved

Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale is a three-act opera recounting the misadventures of Don Pasquale, a miserly, elderly, confirmed bachelor. It premiered in Paris on January 3, 1843.

Ernesto, his nephew and heir, wants to marry Norina, a lovely but penniless young widow. Don Pasquale is having none of it and resolves to take a wife, produce an heir, and disinherit his nephew. That will show him! He tells Dr. Malatesta, who takes the young couple’s side and cooks up a scheme to fool the Don. Norina is enlisted to play the bride, who will be the doctor’s imaginary sister and Pasquale’s demure dream girl. Ernesto, unaware of what’s going on, believes his love is lost, while Don Pasquale’s supposedly supine and obedient bride steps away from the altar transformed into a pushy “shrew” with Dom Perignon tastes. The Don has no one to blame but himself—the joke, it turns out, is on him.

The opera reflects the traditions of opera buffa, with stock characters derived from commedia dell’arte. Director Jean-Sébastien Ouellete (Dom Juan, Le cas Joé Ferguson, La robe de Gulnara) sets the action in a fantasy of the 1960s that fits Giovanni Ruffini’s libretto and its themes like a glove, with Norina’s character a reflection of the women’s liberation movement of the day.

Original Italian version with French surtitles.

English

Don Pasquale by Donizetti, From (2022/2022), Directed by Jean-Sébastien Ouellette,, Conductor Laurent Campellone, Grand Théâtre de Québec, Quebec City, Canada

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Ensemble

Program, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues