Don Pasquale

by Gaetano Donizetti
Comic opera in three acts
Libretto by the composer
in Italian with German subtitles
There is no comedy more woeful than the one of Don Pasquale: An aged man who all throughout his life has regarded the accumulation of riches and power higher than everything else – who cheated his nephew of his inheritance because he disliked the nephew’s choice of wife – who ends up in the hands of a dubious therapist and his ruthless female partner in crime – and whose sheltered existence perishes in a downward spiral of violence. Gaetano Donizetti is 45 years old and terminally ill when he composed his opera in Paris, thereby creating one of the most sparkling and poetical musical scores within the range of Italian opera. And unlike his emphasis on absoluteness and happiness of the individual which represented an integral part of his previous works, Donizetti’s last opera depicts the exact opposite: egotism and indifference
Location
Opernhaus
Duration
Act I + II: appr. 1 hr 20 min
Interval: appr. 25-30 min
Act III: appr. 40 min
This production's premiere
2018
Recommended age
from grade 8