A gold-digging widow, a scheming doctor, and one very grumpy old man walk into an opera...
Donizetti’s timeless comedy shines in Otto Schenk’s enchanting production, conducted by James Levine and featuring a remarkable cast. The incomparable Anna Netrebko is Norina, the young widow beloved by Ernesto (a suave Matthew Polenzani), who is about to be disinherited by his miserly uncle, Don Pasquale (John Del Carlo). It takes the clever scheming of Dr. Malatesta (Mariusz Kwiecien) to set things right and to teach the old curmudgeon a lesson—fits of temper, mistaken identities, and all kinds of comic confusion included.
Acting
Netrebko's Norina: virtuosic voice, razor-sharp comic timing.
Production
Schenk's 19th-century staging: traditional, lavish, intentionally quaint.
Direction
Levine keeps Donizetti's bubbly score effervescent.
Director
Gary Halvorson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Otto Schenk's final Met production after four decades; he's legendary for refusing to modernize operas.
Donizetti wrote this in 1843 as a deliberate throwback to simpler buffa traditions—basically opera's answer to 'they don't make 'em like they used to.'
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