For the last offering of a season that seems to have just begun, Pittsburgh Opera will present Donizetti’s melodious and comic Don Pasquale – an 1834 opera buffa with a 1950’s Hollywood spin – beginning Saturday evening, April 27. The performances will feature Pittsburgh favorite Kevin Glavin in the title role, mark the return of former Resident Artist Javier Abreu as Ernesto, and feature the company debut of Joshua Hopkins as Dr. Malatesta. Resident Artist Tyler Zimmerman will take the role of the Notary, and the brilliant, 2019 Richard Tucker Award winning Lisette Oropesa will sing Norina. The supernumerary role of Max, Pasquale’s major domo, will be played by Ian Christiansen. Gary Thor Wedow will conduct, and the production will be directed by Chuck Hudson. Mr. Hudson recently shared some thoughts on the work, which will be his first outing with Pittsburgh Opera.
“The initial seed for my direction came from a tour of Hearst Castle I took in California,” he said of his 1950’s Hollywood take on the opera. “I saw all the photos of Hollywood movie stars who would come to parties there and I immediately thought of the chorus scenes in Don Pasquale – of how fun would if be to have that chorus peopled by recognizable Hollywood stars. I must always find the dramatic truth in a vision I have for a show, and not try to force a concept onto it, and so I began to look at the production from the point of view of the ‘Golden Years’ of Hollywood.
“I thought of that wonderful movie The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone where an aging actress played by Vivien Leigh runs off to Rome to rekindle her youth with a young Italian gigolo played by Warren Beatty – and aided in the story by her best friend played by opera legend Lotte Lenya. I was getting closer to how the show could work in the ‘Studio Era’ Hollywood and then I hit upon the movie Sunset Boulevard, which is the story of a fallen Hollywood star from the silent film era trying to manage her life as a has-been in the age of talkies and Technicolor. The more the design team and I pursued this angle, the clearer the vision of the show appeared.”
More in keeping with A Star is Born, but in not so tragic a vein as the movies mentioned, the male lead, Don Pasquale, will be the befuddled “has-been.”
Lisette Oropesa as Norina, tenor Javier Abreu as Ernesto and bass Kevin Glavin as Don Pasquale
“People who are familiar with Don Pasquale will love this production because the caliber of the singers and the quality of the music is exactly the level they expect from a world class company like Pittsburgh Opera,” Mr. Hudson added. “People who are not familiar with the opera will discover a very playful, theatrical, and even cinematic level of comfort with this production because of the acting and the specificity of the comic action. For the classicist, there is the amazing orchestration and bel canto singing, and for the new audience member this is a very ‘user friendly’ introduction to what else operas have to offer. This is show where you will be suspended by the beauty in the music, swept away by the storyline, and you are allowed to laugh out loud at the comic action. Can opera be funny? It can be hysterically funny, all in support of the music!
“I have long been a fan of the work at Pittsburgh Opera and I have looked forward to directing at the company for some time. Given the singers they hire and the variety of productions they produce it is clear to me that we share artistic values. Looking not only at the number of museums in the city but the variety of works that thrive here, it is evident that Pittsburgh has a strong and vital artistic community and audiences who are smart and open minded and share a love for the arts, including opera and theater. And this particular production, with its stunning theatrical and cinematic elements, is also a wonderful way to introduce an opera audience to a classic they can relate to easily.”
The delightful Lisette Oropesa, first heard with Pittsburgh Opera in The Daughter of the Regiment a few years ago, also kindly took the time to share a few thoughts on her upcoming role and opera in general.
Richard Tucker Award-Winning Soprano Lisette Oropesa as Norina
“I covered Norina when I was a young artist at the Met, but I never performed the part there. I sang it at Glyndebourne in one production, but 14 performances, so I’d say two productions’ worth. She’s fun – she’s an actress. So she gets to play – she gets to act – it’s a bit of a play within a play. So I get to have fun with being a really over the top, kind of mean character who drives Don Pasquale crazy, because that’s what she’s supposed to be doing in order to achieve what it is that she wants. So, even though she’s lovable, she’s also this shrew who kind of makes everybody just hate her. You love to hate her, I suppose. So that’s always fun. She’s sincere, but she also has to ‘fake it ‘til she makes it’.”
She touched on recently winning the Richard Tucker Award – the “Oscar” of opera.
“I feel very honored that I was chosen. I didn’t think that I was ever going to win the big award because I always thought it was given to a more American-centric career, a person who sings a lot more at the Met. And even though I used to sing a lot at the Met, the bulk of my career lately has been in Europe. So even though I have American engagements, I didn’t think it was enough to qualify me for the big prize. But I do have some big engagements at the Met this coming season and in future seasons, and I guess they thought this was the right time to award me, and I was really grateful.”
The glamorous young American soprano is by no means a “me, me, me” prima donna, and happily shares her experience and advice with aspiring singers.
“I have videos on YouTube full of advice for young singers in all different facets of our work. There’s so much more that goes into being a singer than just having a good voice. There are endless hours and hours of work that go into simply getting your voice to the level where it needs to be. There are languages that you have to learn, which take years to master. And you never really stop learning, because your voice is always evolving because you’re a human being, not a machine; you’re not a finished product ever. Then you have to work on everything that goes with being an opera singer in today’s world, as far as having to tailor your package, your press materials, your social media presence, your photos – there’s so much that goes into it. So I think the best advice I can give to young singers is to build the good habits now that you want to keep when you’re older. Learn your music. Learn your languages. Show up on time. Be professional. Know your character. Know your drama. Know the book work first. The other stuff you can pay people to help you with. The other stuff you will learn on the job, but get the right learning habits down now.
“I feel like the next 10 years of my life will be kind of a singer’s prime. You enter your prime more or less in your mid-30’s, which is where I am now. I hope that the next 10 years will be as successful as the last 10 years have been, and that I’ll be able to look back and say, ‘Wow, I’ve had a really great, long career.’ Because I’ve already had 10 years’ worth of a career, which is weird, but I started very young because of my voice type. I hope to look back and be proud of what I’ve been able to do and of any influence I’ve been able to have on anyone else – if it’s someone that was touched by my performance or wanted to sing because they heard me or wanted to study opera because of me, that is the most rewarding thing a singer can have. I’ll probably be teaching, eventually. Not in 10 years though. I want to wait a little longer. I already do teach some. I like passing it on. It’s important. Spread the good stuff.”
There’s every reason to be confident that Pittsburgh Opera’s final production of the season will offer plenty of good stuff. So for tickets, audio clips, full production details and more, visit Pittsburgh Opera.
David Bachman Photography
A Pittsburgh native, George B. Parous began his studies of music and the ‘cello in grade school before his interests turned to opera, its performers and history while in his teens. He has been acknowledged as a contributor or editor of several published works (the first being “Rosa Raisa, A Biography of a Diva,” Northeastern University Press, 2001), and is currently working on his own biography of the German-American dramatic soprano, Johanna Gadski, who sang at the Metropolitan during the “Golden Age of Opera.” A retired IT Analyst, he is an avid genealogist, and has traced his maternal line to 8th century Wessex, England. He’s been a contributor to Pittsburgh in the Round since 2014.
Categories: Feature