|
Lyric Opera San Diego Home Resource Library Home Don Pasquale Home |
In
1842 Donizetti signed a contract with the Théâtre-Italien in Paris
for his sixty-fourth opera which was to feature the theatre's quartet of well-known
singers: Luigi Lablache, Giulia Grisi, "Mario" and Antonio Tamurini.
What Donizetti did not tell Ruffini was that he planned to reuse much of his
earlier music. Thus, when the poet sent him verses and they did not fit the
existing music, Donizetti rewrote the text. In the end, so many changes were
made that Ruffini refused to have his name used and the printed libretto bore
the initials M.A. as the author. This gave rise to the story, later corrected,
that Michele Accursi was the actual librettist.
Donizetti
later claimed he had composed Don Pasquale in only
eleven days, but much of the music was borrowed from his other writings, and
the eleven days certainly did not include orchestration. Overall, three months
is a more realistic estimate of the time he spent on it. He wished the opera
to be set in his own time, hoping the audiences would understand that the characters
were real people who could be their contemporaries, but both Ruffini and the
singers objected. They felt that curled wigs and velvet costumes were much more
suited to the subject. In the end, the program merely mentioned the location
as Rome and did not give a date. The costumes ended up being a mixture of seventeenth
and eighteenth century styles although, for the second act, where he is supposedly
decked out in finery, Lablache did wear a contemporary green tailcoat in which,
according to Gautier, "He looked like a monstrous scarab that wants to open
its wings and fly away but can't". In the end, the subject matter of the opera
is timeless.
Don Pasquale premièred on January 3, 1843, with Donizetti conducting the first performance. It was an instant success and was soon produced all over Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The first United States performance took place in New Orleans in 1845.
Return to Don Pasquale Home Page
Revised September 2006
Please credit Lyric Opera San Diego when using this material.