I don’t think it’s a big secret that I’m a fan of furry felines so I’m probably predisposed to like Barbe & Doucet’s cat themed production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale for the COC which opened at the Four Seasons Centre on Friday night.  It starts with a projected comic book type prologue during the overture.  Malatesta discovers that cat lover Pasquale is allergic to them so the old man has to ditch his actual furry friends for a series of statues that then crop up all over the Pensione Pasquale.  Yes B&D have set another opera in a hotel!  It’s clever because it makes us a little more sympathetic to the old man who isn’t the nicest guy as written.

The staging then plays out pretty conventionally, though updated to the mid 1960s, with the addition of guests coming and going and three thoroughly decrepit hotel staff/servants.  When Norina renovates all the cat paraphernalia disappears in favour of a fashionably 1960s look.  There’s only one catty one now and it’s not the pussy Don Pasquale thought he was getting.  It’s fast paced and energetic and the additional touches work nicely without trying to add some kind of high concept that the piece isn’t deep enough to carry.  It’s about as good as Donizetti comedy gets.

Performances are very good too.  Misha Kiria is excellent as Pasquale.  Her’s got plenty of vocal weight but the necessary agility too and his shambling persona seems just right.  Josh Hopkins as Malatesta is an excellent foil and the two of them pull off some really very good patter singing together.  Santiago Ballerini has just the right sort of tenor for this music.  He has all the high notes and manages to convey the typical Donizetti tenor haplessness.

Simone Osborne makes a very engaging Norina.  I did worry during her first number; sung from an upper level balcony at the Pensione, that she might be a bit lacking in power but I think it was a trick of the set acoustics because she sounded fine singing at stage level.  It’s an excellent vocal performance but it’s her acting that stands out.  She manages to make Norina awful enough without ever actually becoming totally unsympathetic.  I think one of the strengths of this production is that it really does feel like a happy ending not a disaster for Pasquale.

Alex Halliday is quietly efficient in the cameo role of the Notary.  The chorus only really gets into the show in Act 3 where they crowd the stage catering to Norina’s whims but they hustle and bustle with great energy and sing beautifully.  I also really like Jacques Lacombe’s conducting.  Where the music needs a bit of space to be lyrical he gives it but in the more nonsensical patter singing he takes it very fast indeed.  I think that’s the right approach for these bel canto comedies though it is quite demanding for the singers in the ensemble numbers.  The COC orchestra sounds like it is having fun!

All in all, this has all the elements one wants in bel canto comedy; an imaginative but not overly intellectual production, idiomatic singing, excellent comic acting and a conductor who doesn’t let things drag.  It’s a fun night at the opera.

Don Pasquale runs at the Four Seasons Centre until May 18th with a performance by an Ensemble Studio cast on the 14th.

Photo credits: Michael Cooper