The Liceu slaps the bad times with the fun 'Don Pasquale'

If Gaetano Donizetti raised his head.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
26 September 2022 Monday 01:12
5 Reads
The Liceu slaps the bad times with the fun 'Don Pasquale'

If Gaetano Donizetti raised his head... yesterday he would have enjoyed the laughter that at times his Don Pasquale started at the Liceu. Quiet laughter, murmurs more than guffaws, but a sign that the comic drama – as the composer himself defined it in his score – flowed last night, at the opening of the high school season, like a sailboat in the wind.

Reopening, now that the pandemic is over, this second season that still corresponds to the celebration of the 175th anniversary was not anything. And doing it with a title that is considered the last comic opera, or simply the post-Rossinian echo of the genre, is already a declaration of intent. Changes of winds!

This is well indicated by the scene of the slap in the face received in the third act by the old miser Don Pasquale, who at his seventy years intends to continue ruling the lives of young people and marry a beauty who gives him a son in order to disinherit his nephew. That blow that Norina, the protagonist, gives him, in a brutal revenge of the nineteenth-century soft patriarchy, makes the character of Don Pasquale go from pathetic to tragic. Like the operatic genre itself in the mid-nineteenth century: as the lecturer Carlos Calderón explained to the members of the Circle, the eighteenth-century joke was left behind in 1843 in which this Donizetti was premiered, the same year of the arrival of the tragic hero of the Dutch Wagnerian wandering

And Damiano Michieletto's modern montage, now landing at the Liceu, emphasizes this moment of the slap, both with the play of light and with the acting... Bass-baritone Carlos Chausson (Don Pasquale) is deeply dismayed by the tremendous slap in the face, the first in the history of opera delivered by a woman. And soprano Sara Blanch (Norina) seems aware that she has crossed the line...

Oh, what great actors! What a hard moment of grief and compassion for Don Pasquale! The laughter turns sour at this stage manager flip, immediately returning the plot to the comedy of intrigues. And all this served with vocal power: with the fair measure of Blanch and the pleasant surprise of the newcomer at the Liceu, the tenor from San Sebastian Xabier Anduaga, in the role of Ernesto's nephew, who is undoubtedly called to be a prominent voice in the international firmament. – but also with the strength of the Polish baritone Andrzej Filonczyk, Dr. Malatesta who perpetrates the deception to which Don Pasquale is subjected.

A large representation from the cultural, business and political spheres participated in all this at the Gran Teatre, who paraded, with pleasure, down a carpet that yesterday seemed especially red. Its texture empathized with the shadows projected on the ground by the famous doors of Jaume Plensa, a sculptural success, whichever way you look at it, which raised the level of glamor of the high school night.

The Liceu had become the place to be (the place to be) judging by the famous faces. The presence of Rigoberta Bandini, who arrived during the opera break, or that of Amaia Romero, the latest winner of Operación Triunfo, marked a change in the generational and stylistic trend at this Barcelona cultural event. Juan Antonio Bayona and Los Javis were seen, to mention film and television producers, or the members of the Mishima group and those of Hidrogenesse, as well as Mariona de Eufòria, Andrea Motis or Marc Parrot.

Numbers that appeared in frank competition with those of the politicians... starting with the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta; the one for Inclusion, José Luis Escrivá Belmonte, and the one for Science and Innovation, Diana Morant. The Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga, and the Minister of Justice, Lourdes Ciuró, will represent the Government of the Generalitat, together with the Government delegate in Madrid, Ester Capella. Neither did Maria Eugènia Gay, delegate of the Government in Catalonia.

But it was the mayor Ada Colau who attracted all eyes, so rare is her presence in the lyrical coliseum of her city. And although this time she could feel more at home, perhaps due to the proximity of Rigoberta Bandini, an artist for whom she openly voted among the Eurovision candidates, the mayor withdrew after the half-party drink... opera is definitely not her favourite dish.

The president of the ERC, Ernest Maragall, and the deputy mayors Jaume Collboni, Laia Bonet, Laura Pérez Castaño and Albert Batlle, as well as the former mayors Joan Clos and Xavier Trias, who joined other former... the presidents Montilla and Torra, but not Artur Mas, who caused casualties due to family circumstances.

Actors and actresses came with their hands full, starting with the faithful Àngels Gonyalons, Teresa Riott, Pere Arquillué, Josep Maria Pou, Marc Clotet, Àlex Monner, Laura Conejero, Irene Montalà, Guillermo Lasheras or Itziar Castro. And the director Àlex Rigola, the historic dancer Guillermina Coll and the choreographer Sol Picó, who introduced his son to the coliseum of the velvets.

From the world of fashion, the models Vanesa Lorenzo and Judit Mascó - stylish even with sports shoes - and the designers Paloma Lanna, Rosa Clarà and Txell Miras were not absent. It was seen in the super chefs Carme Ruscalleda and Ada Parellada. From the letters... Vicenç Villatoro or Milena Busquets. And from the architectural area, Benedetta Tagliabue, Carlos Ferrater or the members of H Arquitectes.

From the business world came Javier Godó, count of Godó and president editor of La Vanguardia; Josep Oliu, president of Banco Sabadell; Ángel Simón, president of Agbar; Maurici Lucena, president of Aena; Elsa Duran, deputy general manager of La Caixa Banking Foundation, or Francisco Gaudier, president of the Cercle del Liceu.

All of them entertained the artists with six minutes of final applause. Josep Pons, musical director, congratulated the orchestra and choir from the stage, but perhaps the most moved was Carlos Chausson, who curiously sings this character at the same age as Don Pasquale –72 he already has the Aragonese bass-baritone– and with an amazing voice. “Medicine and drugs have given us 25 more years... an extra generation to enjoy Don Pasquale without a guilt complex,” Carlos Calderón joked. "Because despite the entanglements and the 'triumph of young love', the Don Pasquale is a celebration of vitality."