Director Paweł Szkotak has no doubts: the excellent music and well-written libretto of this opera give the producers and the performing artists the opportunity to create a dynamic and entertaining staging. This will also be the premiere of "Don Pasquale" by Gaetano Donizetti, which will inaugurate the 30th Bydgoszcz Opera Festival on April 20th, 2024.
"Don Pasquale" on the Opera Nova stage will have a cinematic flair - it is no accident that the action of the work was moved to New York at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, and the title character has many features in common with the iconic figure of the Italian mafioso in American cinematography.
- "Don Pasquale" is about love and power. The main axis of the conflict is the constant clash of what is masculine and what is feminine. If this opera were given a different title, it might be "The Fall of the Patriarch". In our culture, the character of mafioso Don Corleone, first created in the novel by Mario Puzo and later played by Marlon Brando in the film "The Godfather", has become a popular icon of male power. We will refer to this character to some extent and play with him to some extent - explains Paweł Szkotak, who directs the show.
A dark office in which Don Pasquale deals with his "interests", accompanied by two bodyguards, or a shooting on one of the New York streets, which is the site of an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the main character - there will be allusions to the legendary "Godfather" in the opera staging, also in the costumes and set design.
The entire staging is carried out on a revolving stage, which - as explained by the author of the set design, Mariusz Napierała - favors the cinematic narrative of the performance, consisting of a smooth transition of the action between three (and the fourth in the finale) different stage spaces, which will be: Don Pasquale's house (in which, over time, the darkness will be illuminated by... pink!), a New York street in a noir atmosphere (a true characteristic of American gangster cinematography) and Norina's modest boudoir (which will transform into an idyllic garden in the second part of the show).
