The NOF fights for Don Pasquale

Balance “Hard hit by the Covid and its mandatory quarantines, the Nouvel Opéra Friborg was to give the first performance of its New Year’s production, Don Pasquale, last night. Five other performances are scheduled until January 9. The music of this lyrical work is by Donizetti, it is a masterpiece of belcanto and Italian opera buffa. But its intrigue is deeper, even “twilight”, than the lightness traditionally attributed to the Commedia dell’Arte. Its reach already heralds a new era in opera composition.

In the pit, a specialist in this repertoire, conductor Sebastiano Rolli, was expected at the head of the Friborg Chamber Orchestra. The staging