![\"800x532xglyndepic,P20dannie.jpg.pagespeed.ic.hKjfWmmH7s\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/800x532xglyndepicP20dannie.jpg.pagespeed.ic_.hKjfWmmH7s.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDr Malatesta (Nikolay\u2028Borchev), Norina (Danielle de Niese) and Don Pasquale (Alessandro Corbelli).\u2028Photo credit Clive Barda<\/p>\n
The \u2028problem: What is Malatesta’s motive? In the production that has just opened at\u2028Glyndebourne, directed by Miriame Cl\u00e9ment, designed by Julia Hansen and\u2028conducted superbly by Enrique Mazzola (with a spectacular cast) the suggestion\u2028is that Malatesta (played as an attractive young man by Nikolay Borchev)\u2028fancies Norina himself. She is sung and acted in a magnificent performance by\u2028Danielle de Niese (who is in real life the wife of the hereditary chairman of\u2028Glyndebourne, Gus Christie). She appears at least to tolerate, and possibly to\u2028welcome, Malatesta’s attentions. This simply raises the further question, why\u2028then does she finally marry Ernesto? Is she polyandrously inclined? Or just\u2028marrying Ernesto for the money he’ll inherit from Pasquale (and the 4,000-ducat\u2028annuity till Pasquale’s death)? Fickle or gold-digger? Great though it is, Ms\u2028de Niese’s thrillingly musical all-singing, all-dancing,\u2028acting-with-arched-eyebrows performance doesn’t really give us a clue.<\/p>\n
In its first\u2028performance in 1843, Giovanni Ruffini and Donizetti’s opera buffa libretto (mostly by Donizetti, drawing on an 1810 piece\u2028by Angelo Anelli, composed by Stefano Pavesi – \u00a0Ser Marc’Antonio) there was\u2028no Malatesta quandary, because the audience immediately recognised the stock\u2028characters of the commedia dell’arte.\u2028Pasquale was the bad-tempered, bumbling Pantalone, Ernesto the\u2028pining-away-for-love Pierrot, Norina the tricky Columbina and Malatesta the\u2028trouble-making Scapino, who schemes just for the love of mischief.<\/p>\n
This construal\u2028of Malatesta’s character was more readily seen in the 2010 Covent Garden\u2028production directed by Sir Jonathan Miller in the cut-away doll’s-house sets of\u2028Isabella Bywater, with Malatesta played hilariously by Jacques Imbrailo as a\u2028gangly, funny schemer, sans the\u2028romantic interest of the slim, handsome Mr. Borchev.<\/p>\n
The wisp of\u2028a plot needs something extra to keep the audience’s attention – and in both\u2028these productions it’s the set that gives this added value. At Glyndebourne Ms\u2028Hansen’s revolving sets add to the comedy, especially when filled with the all-white-costumed\u2028chorus – the first, brief sight of which is breathtaking.\u00a0 Ms Cl\u00e9ment uses them well, and her direction\u2028of the rapid-fire baritone patter arias and duet is as brilliant as Mr Borchev\u2028and Alessandro Corbelli’s performances of them. Mr Corbelli’s mastery of this\u2028role amounts to genius, and I hope that it, and Ms de Niese’s subtle acting and\u2028accurate coloratura passages have been saved for posterity on a DVD.\u2028Furthermore. Mr Mazzola’s orchestra was stunning, from the crisp opening chords\u2028to the amazing, discreet support given to the singers of both the patter-songs\u2028and the familiar ballad in waltz-time. At the opening night this season,\u2028Ernesto had to be sung by a dazzling last-minute replacement, Enea Scala, who\u2028sang the role for the Glyndebourne Tour.<\/p>\n
Give \u2028Malatesta a proper purpose, and this staging will soar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donizetti’s Don\u2028Pasquale has a dramaturgical problem.\u00a0\u2028The 70-something Pasquale wants to marry and produce heirs, as his young\u2028heir-apparent nephew, Ernesto, has refused the arranged marriage proposed for\u2028him by his uncle. Pasquale’s doctor, Malatesta has nominated himself as\u2028Pasquale’s marriage-broker, but the woman he proposes is Norina, the young\u2028widow who is the secret squeeze of Ernesto. Malatesta introduces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/800x532xglyndepicP20dannie.jpg.pagespeed.ic_.hKjfWmmH7s.jpg?fit=800%2C532&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbv6zV-cg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/plainenglish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}