Way back in 1976 a group of St. Louis opera lovers decided to create Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The first opera performed was Don Pasquale. Norina was sung by a very young Sheri Greenawald, who would go on to sing in opera houses around the world.
For this, its 50th anniversary season, OTSL chose Don Pasquale as the centerpiece opera of its Festival Season and it brought Sheri Greenawald back, not as Norina but as a delightful onstage presence as "the notary".
The notary is a very small role, appearing in the second act only as the "fake" notary documenting the "fake" marriage of Don Pasquale. (It's a complicated story.) But OTSL enlarged the role, putting Greenawald onstage throughout the opera as a silent conspirator with Dr. Malatesta, Ernesto and Norina. And she was delightfully humorous and in Norina's final aria, the stage was yielded to Greenawald for a few bars, making it the perfect anniversary night.
The role of Norina in this production was sung by Susanne Burgess, a British-American soprano with an exquisite voice and perfect comic timing. Don Pasquale is in the bel canto style and I must admit that it is not usually my favorite style - I sometimes think that the singers get so caught up in the singing that they forget to act. Not Burgess! Her voice was part of the act, at one point intentionally waking up a sleeping cafe patron with a high note. Patrick Carfizzi, a regular at the Metropolitan Opera, played the old (lecherous) Don Pasquale and had equally perfect comic timing. After the fake wedding Norina turns from a shy young convent girl into a shrew who spends all his money and the two play off of each other perfectly (don't worry, it's all part of a plot to allow Norina to marry Pasquale's nephew).
This was a delightful production. Although the chorus only sings in Act III, they were onstage through much of the opera. This production set Act I in an Italian Bar (Cafe) where Sheri Greenawald is the silent owner (?) and barista. The chorus appears as comic background as very old, decrepit customers and friends of Don Pasquale in the cafe. In Act II, at the home of Don Pasquale they appear again as his old, decrepit friends but after Norina tricks him into the fake marriage they throw off their disguises signaling that Don Pasquale's life, as he knew it, is over and revealing that some of them are women. In the third act they are Norina's gender fluid friends whom Don Pasquale can't stand. There is a lot of symbolism in this production about the harms of the patriarchy.
The production was directed by Christopher Alden who, at age 25, directed that very first Don Pasquale at OTSL. I did not see that production (I was still in high school) but it was apparently a more traditional production. In this production Alden let his imagination run wild to good effect. Marsha Ginsburg's set and costume designs were simple but eye-catching, starting with a fairly realistic cafe setting and then getting more and more unreal as the antics went on. At one point Norina is on top of a cart with a top that turns her around (like the little ballerinas in jewelry boxes). I also must make a special call out to Eric Southern's lighting design. And conductor Kensho Watanabe, making his OTSL debut, holds everything together conducting the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the pit.
Altogether a delightful evening at the opera. Here's to 50 more seasons!
