The production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale recorded at the 2024 Donizetti Festival in Bergamo is lively colourful and, generally, well done.  Amélie Niermayer’s production is essentially contemporary with a heavy emphasis on class difference between the relatively upscale Pasquale clan and the Malatestas who are shown as some sort of Italian equivalent of “Essex man”.  Doctor Malatesta has tattoos and wears a heavy gold chain and when we first see Norina she’s in braids, a T shirt, fishnets and also sports tattoos.  Her taste doesn’t improve much after the “wedding”.  In contrast, Ernesto is more stylish and less of a dweeb than in other productions I’ve seen.

The set is a rotating one that can switch between the well stocked bar of the Pasquale residence or the exterior as needed.  The action is pretty straightforward until the third act when it gets a bit weird.  In the chaotic scene where Norina is buying all the things a pink elephant appears and the delivery personnel all seem to be furries.  I’m really not sure what that was about!  But, all in all, it’s straightforward enough but lively and colourful and funny where it needs to be.

The singing and acting is really very good.  There are no really big names here but everyone has a real sense of the required bel canto style.  Both the Norina and the Malatesta are drawn from the festival’s young artist programme.  Giulia Mazzola is not the most glamorous Norina ever (which wouldn’t work in this production anyway) but she’s a wonderfully secure singer with clean top notes and excellent coloratura.  She’s also an exceptionally good actress and hams it up just enough and at the right times.  Dario Sogos is equally good as Malatesta.  I guess Roberto de Candia, who sings Pasquale, is a bit better known.  He’s got the proper buffo style and can knock out a really good patter song.  Javier Camarena’s Ernesto is also excellent with ringing high notes and a very clean sound.  His “Com’è gentil” is lovely though quite why he is accompanied by a Mariachi band I don’t know.

The chorus is the Coro dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala and they throw themselves around with abandon in Act 3 accompanied by some rather athletic dancers.  Iván López-Reynoso conducts confidently and maintains generally brisk tempi.  The show never drags.

Video direction is by Matteo Ricchetti and is unobtrusively straightforward.  The picture and sound (the usual DTS-HD 5.1 and PCM 2.0) are excellent on Blu-ray.  The booklet has a track listing and synopsis plus interviews with director and conductor.  Subtitle options are Italian, English, French, German, Japanese and Korean.

The competition for this disk is three big name productions from major houses; Glyndebourne, the Met (DVD only) and Covent Garden.  The last of those has a star cast with Bryn Terfel and Olga Peretyatko and an elegant production.  Perhaps surprisingly this new version holds up to it rather well and which one prefers may be more a matter of personal taste than objective merit.  I don’t think one would be disappointed by either.

Catalogue details: Dynamic Blu-ray DYN58067