DON PASQUALE – DONIZETTI
Presented on May 18, 20, 23 at the Gaiety Theatre Dublin as part of the Dublin Grand Opera Society’s Spring Season
Paolo Washington – Pasquale
Valeria Mariconda – Norina
Ugo Benelli – Ernesto
Attilio d’Orazi – Malatesta
Augusto Pedroni – Notary
Giuseppe Morelli – Conductor
Augusto Cardi – Producer
Benelli says he was delighted to return to Dublin to sing Ernesto in “Don Pasquale”, the popular Donizetti comedy. By now he and his wife Angela and their two young children had moved from Milan to Genoa. ‘I love the city because of its beauty and its climate’, he says. ‘The fog in Milan is not good for singers, Genoa is by the sea and better for the voice.’ He was a rising star, getting more and more engagements throughout Europe and in North and South America. He had promised Colonel O’Kelly he would come back, engagements permitting. ‘I was still a young lyric tenor finding my way and had a wife and children, so I came to Dublin for the money and for the music. Bill O’Kelly had been good to me and I think he was happy with my Ernesto. It was one of my favourite parts.’ He enjoyed the post-opera suppers and parties and continued to make friends. With his good English, he got to know people better than his Italian colleagues and was rather proud when taximen hailed him by name in the streets of Dublin.
(Extracted from “Love and Music: The Glorious History of the Dublin Grand Opera Society” by Gus Smith, 1998)
Opera in Ireland 