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Opera San José opens its 20th anniversary season Sept. 6 with the comic opera Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti. The well-loved opera marks the beginning of a season that revisits some audience favorites--the perfect anniversary celebration and a fitting send-off for the company's final season in the Montgomery Theatre. In fall 2004, the company plans to move to a larger space, the renovated Fox Theatre, in downtown San Jose.
Don Pasquale is a celebration of love and marriage, and yet the opera garners its biggest laughs from mocking matrimony. But that's only because this classic opera buffa concerns a sham marriage cooked up by a young man to teach his selfish old uncle a lesson in love--tough love, one might almost say.
To dissuade his domineering old uncle, Don Pasquale, from forcing him to give up his true love in favor of a lucrative arranged marriage, the clever Ernesto enlists some friends to help him arrange a "marriage" for Pasquale. The stubborn old geezer suddenly finds himself bound to love, honor and obey (mostly obey) a beautiful young wife who becomes shrewish and bossy just moments after their wedding vows. Luckily for Pasquale, it's a purposefully hellish match designed to teach him that marrying well doesn't necessarily guarantee a good marriage.
With rotating casts, featuring Jesse Merlin and David Cox as Don Pasquale; Joseph Muir and Joshua La Force as Ernesto; and Sandra Rubalcava and Kimarie Torre as Norina, Ernesto's true love, who masquerades as Don Pasquale's demanding new bride.
Opera San José presents Don Pasquale Sept. 628 at the Montgomery Theatre, Market and San Carlos streets, San Jose. Tickets are $43$63. For more information, call 408.437.4450 or visit www.operasj.org.
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