Review: Don Pasquale

At first, I was a little leery of an opera, originally cast in Rome, to be staged instead in the wild west. However, it turned out to be an enjoyable experience, and they actually made it work. As it turns out, it is the custom for Don Pasquale to be set in the time and place of the current production, so if it was performed in 1940 in England, the director would incorporate elements of World War II. If it was performed in Greece in 1900, the director would probably set it as though it was written in Greece in 1900. So, it wasn't too much of a departure to set it in the wild west during a production in Utah.

Even though it was still sung in Italian (there's really no getting around that), the supertitles did reflect the cultural shift. For example, one of the characters said, (roughly translated, since I can only understand a little Italian), "Wait for a moment," the supertitles had it translated to "Hold your horses."

The singing was done excellently, and the set design was wonderful. A few added extras, such as a mariachi band on stage and two of the leads "accidentally" getting stuck in front of the curtain when it closed after a duet (they both turned around and looked at the curtain, at each other, then sheepishly at the audience) added a little more humor into an otherwise already funny plot.

So, it ended up being a great experience, and I'm really glad I was able to go.