OPERA REVIEW : ‘Pasquale’: Send in No Clowns

All right. All right. We give up. The crimes against nature and “Pelleas et Melisande” are forgiven.

When the Music Center Opera is bad, it can be perverse. Interesting, to be sure, but perverse nonetheless. And when the company is good, it can be wonderful.

Let’s not beat around the operatic bush. “Don Pasquale,” which received its first performance at the odd hour of 1 o’clock on Saturday, is wonderful. It restores the faith, and not a moment too soon.

There are many heroes here, beginning with Gaetano Donizetti. Few comic operas between “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Falstaff” are as poignant, as clever and as graceful as “Don Pasquale.” Unfortunately, many conductors, directors and singers fall into the trap of stressing the composer’s obvious wit at the expense of his subtle wisdom.

But that isn’t the case with the enlightened team assembled here by Peter Hemmings. With young Evelino Pido enforcing elegant propulsion in the pit, with Stephen Lawless defining character--never caricature--on the intimate stage-within-a-stage designed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle for Covent Garden in 1973, with a deftly balanced ensemble led by the succulent Claudio Desderi in the title role, this is the very model of a major old-fashioned production.

Here, for once, is an opera buffa without the buffoons. Here, at last, is a period piece liberated from empty convention and tired cliche. Here is a thinking person’s comedy.

*

The story is simple. Don Pasquale, a silly old tightwad, gets his comeuppance when he courts a demure young thing who turns into an apparent virago as soon as the marriage contract is signed. The woman is actually his nephew’s sweet sweetheart, and the wedding, thank goodness, is mock.

There are delicate balances to be observed here. If the plot is played strictly for laughs, the charades turn shallow all too quickly and the lyricism of the score is compromised. If the proceedings are played too seriously, Pasquale becomes a tragic victim and his antagonists become bullies.

The Music Center version erred--if it erred at all--on the side of pathos. That, of course, is the side of the angels.

Desderi--bless him--steadfastly refused to mug, steadfastly refused to rant, steadfastly refused to sink to the level of a funny villain. His Pasquale was just a formidable, aging bachelor--lonely, humorous, brash, a bit set in his ways, perhaps, but certainly worthy of a little feminine comfort in his distant twilight years. This eminently sensible characterization forced his opponents to tread lightly as they plotted his downfall.

Rodney Gilfry as Malatesta, the friendly schemer, had to sustain a sense of tender whimsy. Inva Mula (a.k.a. Inva Mula Cako) as Norina had to tame the shrewishness of the fake bride. Greg Fedderly as her beloved Ernesto had to maintain an air of gentle innocence even when engaged in domestic combat.

It couldn’t always have been easy, but it worked. Beautifully.

Lawless, who had never staged “Don Pasquale” before, kept everyone moving nimbly and, more important, naturally, without trampling on musical delicacies. He focused the drama with equal parts eloquence and elegance, and made telling use of the genial two-level set created 15 years before Ponnelle’s untimely death. (After all the “Pelleas” tribulations, one really hoped the folks in the balconies could see the action upstairs.)

Pido, whose star in the musical universe is behaving like a meteor, served notice in the first seven bars of the sparkling overture that he doesn’t even begin to know the meaning of that awful word routine . He plunged into the action with something like delirious delight and ennobled the line with surprising dynamic and rhythmic nuances. Eliciting stylish support from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, he kept the textures clean, the phrasing poised. He did all this and accompanied the singers with grateful empathy, too.

His only miscalculation may have involved Ernesto’s celebrated serenade in the last scene, “Com’e gentil,” which was banished offstage and dispatched with needless haste. Tito Schipa wouldn’t have liked that.

The singers fit splendidly into the sophisticated musico-dramatic frame. Desderi, dark-toned veteran of many a lesser “Don Pasquale,” caressed the text adorably--whether in patter song or legato flight--and mustered constant dignity against the odds. Gilfry was spry and mischievous yet never arch or coy as Malatesta, and he applied his slender baritone to the melodic curves with aristocratic brio.

Mula, an Albanian soprano who recently won the Placido Domingo Concours in Paris, exuded quiet charm in her debut as Norina and sang, for the most part, with disarming purity and brilliance, as needed. Fedderly, whose extraordinary bel-canto talents have been wasted in a silly series of comprimario assignments, brought rare vocal warmth and finesse, plus histrionic sympathy, to the plaints of Ernesto. His voice blended exquisitely with Mula’s in the weaving pianissimo thirds and sixths of “Tornami a dir.”

Mallory Walker, formerly a stellar tenor, performed the walk-on duties of the notary with distinction that reinforced the old bromide about there being no small roles, only small artists. The wistful chorus of servants, sensitively trained by William Vendice, deserved the special applause it received after “Che interminabile andirivieni.”

As usual, the supertitles invited premature and sometimes inappropriate mirth--most crucially at the painful moment when Norina slaps Pasquale. Still, this was an affecting afternoon at the opera.

There is hope.

*

“Don Pasquale,” presented by the Music Center Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Remaining performances Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday and March 29 at 8 p.m., April 1 at 1 p.m. (Michael Gallup takes over title role April 1.) Tickets $21 to $115 at box office (213 972-7211). Student and senior rush seats $10, if available, one hour before curtain.