The Canadian Opera Company has launched into its spring season, offering a comedy as a rare treat. Donizetti’s Don Pasquale opened in late April and I was able to catch a mid-run performance of the show. This production, via Scottish Opera, features stage direction, dramaturgy, scenic and costume design by Barbe & Doucet; at the COC, we have Jacques Lacombe in the pit.

The show has been set in a 1960’s Italian romance film style, which works quite effectively. The perspective of the scenic design backdrops was at such a curious angle that at the same time as it evoked great height and tallness, it also lent a sort of cartoony-Batman aesthetic. It kept the frivolity of the entire story firmly ensconced in the audience’s psyche as the show unfolded.

The story goes, Don Pasquale is old and wealthy – in this iteration he owns a hotel. His nephew, Ernesto, is poised to inherit his uncle’s entire estate. Pasquale has repeatedly told his nephew to take a wife and has even proffered his chosen lady. Ernesto is in love with the poor widow Norina and wants to marry her. Pasquale, out of spite for his nephew’s disobedience, decides to kick him out of the house (hotel) and to marry for himself – thus Ernesto’s inheritance would go to Pasquale’s new bride. Pasquale has enlisted the help of Dr. Malatesta to find him a bride. Malatesta, who is in cahoots with Ernesto and Norina, hatches a plan to make Pasquale marry Norina – who will then teach the Don a lesson. Hijinks ensue.

The energy on the stage was palpable. With Misha Kiria in the title role of the Don, we see not only a capable singer but a very fine actor as well. He strikes an imposing figure on the stage which almost adds to the mid-century cartoon feeling that the show is imbued with. His range was remarkable and his chemistry on-stage was quite electric. As Dr. Malatesta, baritone Joshua Hopkins stepped onto the stage with confidence and swagger. His warm voice suited very well to the bel canto of Donizetti and blended quite well with Kiria’s Pasquale.

As the lovers Norina and Ernesto, soprano Simone Osborne brought a feistiness to Norina that she had a lot of fun showing in her voice – as well as her acting. Her voice married fabulously with tenor Santiago Ballerini’s Ernesto. A standout for me in the show, his voice was clear and strong, yet retained a beauty, delicacy, and agility that is needed for this kind of repertoire.

While the acting overall was outstanding and quite entertaining, the lower voices seemed plagued by a number of musical issues. Things started kind of going off the rails with Hopkins’ “Bella siccome un’angelo” and it may have rattled the singer, but I feel like he struggled to get back to his usual grounded performance. Recitatives were clean and quick, but I found that the creative license taken by Hopkins and Kiria – as is the custom in bel canto – didn’t quite dance the way they may have intended? A highlight of the show is the remarkably difficult and incredibly fast duet by Pasquale and Malatesta. While the amount of syllables that were flying by were impressive and the pace was astounding, I felt no one was really in the pocket of the piece – neither the pit nor the stage. Patter of that (or any) difficulty really needs a proper sense of an internal pulse from everyone, I felt like there were a few too many pulses on the stage.

Musical issues aside - which very likely could have been only for a night - Pasquale is a fantastically entertaining evening out at the theatre. Two of the reasons for this are the fantastic performances by the chorus and the troupe of supernumeraries. As the opera is unfolding there is a constant comedy of interesting people coming and going throughout “Pensione Pasquale.” I would like to give a special nod to the trio of the Cook, the Housekeeper and the Bellhop. Three incredibly entertaining performances, with nary a word spoken.

The story is quite harmless, no one dies, and everyone really gets what they want in the end and it’s not Nozze di Figaro). It’s a nice refresher to the palette of tragedies that seem to get all the attention. The show runs until May 18 so there’s still time to see this really fun romp with Donizetti.