Next up for Opera Magnifico: Donizetti’s high-spirited ‘Don Pasquale’

Stephen Walley, Opera Magnifico’s artistic director and president, will also sing in its upcoming production of “Don Pasquale.”

Opera is in the DNA of Opera Magnifico founder Stephen Walley. He is a professional baritone and comes from a long line of opera singers. “It definitely runs in the family,” he says. “Opera is not something I ever expected to do, but it is something I fell in love with.”

He will give audiences an opportunity to fall in love with it, too, when Opera Magnifico presents Gaetano Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale,” Nov. 7 and 9 at The Stage at Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church. The sparkling opera buffa was a hit at its 1843 premiere and has been a favorite ever since with its high-spirited comedy and lyrical melodies, which will be played by a chamber ensemble led by music director Akiko Hosaki.

It is a compacted work of sorts, with a reduced cast and a compressed plot: A rich old man falls for a young woman and gets tricked, with hilarity ensuing. This makes it a fine match for the young company.

“Pasquale” will be both a company premiere and mark role debuts for every principal, all of whom are up-and-coming singers. “We try to help young, talented people get to the next level of their careers by giving them opportunities they might not necessarily find in other places,” says Walley. Since 2022, the Gladstone-based nonprofit has given young artists opportunities to perform in professional settings in Somerset County and beyond.

Walley sets the tone as the company’s artistic director and president. Elegant and classic productions are intended to invoke opera’s golden age. “Usually Bel Canto is the starting point,” he says.

The lively Italian genre covers roughly the mid- to late-19th century and includes crowd-pleasing works by composers Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi. “When I learned to sing, I was trained in the Bel Canto style, which is really what made me fall in love with opera,” says Walley. “So we kind of center ourselves in Mozart through the Italian verismo repertoire, and Bel Canto falls smack in the middle of that in terms of the timeline.”

“Don Pasquale” will be their third Donizetti opera: In 2023, they presented the popular comedy “L’elisir d’Amore,” and last May, the tragedy “Lucia di Lammermoor.” Both productions stayed true to the source material and “Don Pasquale” will do the same, keeping with the plot’s setting of Rome in the mid-19th century.

The story by librettist Giovanni Ruffini (based on Stefano Pavesi’s 1810 opera “Ser Marcantonio”) stars the elderly bachelor Don Pasquale. He decides to get married to punish his nephew Ernesto, who has refused an arranged marriage because he is in love with Norina. Under the guidance of Dr. Malatesta, Norina disguises herself as a bride and tricks Don Pasquale into marriage, then drives him to despair. Malatesta eventually reveals the prank, and Don Pasquale forgives Ernesto and Norina and blesses their marriage.

Though it is a typical stock comedy, “Don Pasquale” blends humor with humanity. Among the exaggerated buffoonery there are touching and emotional moments.

CARLOS PEDROZA

The title role will be sung by bass-baritone Carlos Pedroza, who sang Raimondo in the company’s “Lucia.” At the audition, he won everyone over with his sense of humor, making him a fine match for the comedic role. “He also has a booming bass voice that is epic and fun to listen to,” Walley says.

The character is stubborn and miserly, but also vulnerable, and he has a good heart. His most memorable arias are lively and lightning-fast: In “Ah! Un fuoco insolito,” he imagines himself as a spring chicken married to a young woman. “Aspetta, aspetta cara sposina” is a comical outburst of confusion and frustration.

Tenor Jordan Costa will sing Ernesto, a young romantic whose only desire is to marry his true love. As it goes with the typical Donizetti tenor role, the tessitura is high and calls for a voice that combines gentle lyricism and expressive power. Ernesto’s standout aria is the tender and melancholy “Povero Ernesto” (introduced by a famous trumpet solo), in which he expresses his heartbreak over the prospect of losing Norina and then decides, in despair, to leave for good.

Costa specializes in the Bel Canto repertoire; one of his signature roles is Count Almaviva in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.” While he has collaborated with Magnifico behind the scenes, this will be his company debut.

RACHEL KOBERNICK

Soprano Rachel Kobernick will also make her company debut as Norina, Nov. 9; the role will be split with Cassidy Dixon, Nov. 7. Dixon is the company’s director of operations and sang Adina in their “L’elisir.” “She is what I would call a fan favorite,” says Walley. “A lot of our patrons love her.”

Norina’s character is volatile, but honest and sensitive. She must be a sincere lover to Ernesto and a spicy seductress to Don Pasquale. Her fun, playful “Quel guardo il cavaliere” describes her ability to charm men. Vocally, the role suits a high, light lyric voice with fresh color for all the coloratura passages.

Malatesta — Don Pasquale’s physician and advisor, and Ernesto’s best friend — is charismatic, manipulative, resourceful and witty. He gets the opera’s first aria, “Bella siccome un angelo,” an exaggerated parody piece with over-stylized ornamentation. The song sets the trap for Don Pasquale, presenting him with the idea of a modest and wholesome bride who Malatesta pretends is his sister Sofronia (but is actually Norina in disguise.)

Walley will sing this role on Nov. 7; lyric baritone Zachary Angus will do so on Nov. 9. Angus last sang with the company as Enrico in “Lucia.”

Walley’s appearance will be a rarity. He performs with regional opera companies around the country but the last time he sang in one of his own productions was in 2022, in the chorus of Puccini’s “La bohème.”

The reason? A personal connection. “Don Pasquale” is his father’s favorite opera so it will be a special occasion. “I probably won’t do it again, or at least not for a very, very long time,” he says.

AKIKO HOSAKI

Magnifico’s productions always include live music accompaniment; Hosaki will conduct a string quartet and a piano. She has conducted past productions for the company, including “Lucia.” “For some productions we add woodwinds, but for Bel Canto, because the genre is a little more scaled back, we thought that the four strings and the piano would be a good way to go,” Walley says.

Also scaled back will be the choral element, which Donizetti used sparingly but brilliantly as maids and butlers in Don Pasquale’s home. For example, Act III begins with the servants bustling around his house, carrying out his new bride Sofronia’s extravagant orders.

Past productions have recruited local singers and community members in and around the Gladstone area, plus professional opera singers. But this production will condense the chorus into a solo quartet, with each vocal part assigned to a specific character. “Each singer will be heavily featured, and it will almost be like a role for them rather than just being part of a large ensemble,” Walley says.

The four choral singers will be Katherine White, Elyse Brachfeld, Noah Donahue and Bryan McClary. McClary will also sing a notary and Malatesta’s cousin, Carlino.

Walley says the overarching look and aesthetics of their productions are traditional, “but some of the comedy could be a little bit cheekier than, say, a strait-laced, traditional production.”

Stage director Emily Niemeyer, who also sits on the company’s board, will bring out the Roman setting’s traditional elegance and warmth, with some comic exaggeration. Most of the action takes place in Don Pasquale’s tastefully appointed home, but his upscale furnishings become chaotic once Sofronia takes over the household.

Brachfeld’s costume designs will also be rooted in the classic look: Don Pasquale is typically in old-fashioned suits and nightcaps; Norina in bright, stylish gowns; Ernesto in youthful, romantic attire; and Malatesta in polished, professional dress.

Every opera Magnifico mounts is preceded by a smartly themed fundraiser gala with a musical performance that includes a teaser of the upcoming production. “We always try to come up with a fun theme,” Walley says. “It’s always at a nice restaurant with good food and drinks.”

The fundraising gala for “Don Pasquale” was at the Chesapeake Tavern in Long Valley, Sept. 18. Every ticket was sold. It was called “Bel Canto and Bubbly” and featured a three-course meal. Guests were treated to a 45-minute performance, including a 10-minute preview of arias from “Don Pasquale.”

Walley never dreamed his company would evolve into something so significant for so many young artists. When he came up with the idea, he was in the same shoes as the rising singers who he now platforms. “The company began because my friends and I wanted to put on opera,” he says. “We were all coming out of school during the height of the pandemic and there just weren’t opportunities for young opera singers who were trying to start their careers. So I had the idea, ‘Why don’t we just put on our own operas and we can get experience that way?’ So a group of us got together and I kind of spearheaded it.”

He went into the first production thinking that he would give himself a starring role, “but I realized these singers were in the same boat that my friends and I had been in three or four years ago,” he says. “So the company adapted a bit, and we are really devoted to giving a platform for young artists to perform classic operas and actually get paid. Because that’s almost extremely rare these days, even for someone with a Master’s degree — to actually get paid to perform their craft.”

The first season featured one opera, “La bohème,” plus a couple of concerts. “We ended up having way more people come to ‘La bohème’ than we ever could have imagined and the reception was just incredible,” Walley says. “People came up to us and were like, ‘Could you please do another one, we would love to support you and help you do this!’ ”

Every season has been marked by growth. The 2023-24 season included two operas. One was Puccini’s “Suor Angelica,” a one-act opera about a sisterhood of nuns, set in an Italian convent in the 17th century. Billed as an “immersive opera experience,” it was performed at a functioning convent, the Community of St. John Baptist in Mendham Township.

“It’s the only Episcopalian convent in the U.S. that is still running, and we actually did the production in the physical convent; we didn’t even need a set because it was the actual building,” Walley says. “That was pretty cool and it added a realism aspect to it.”

Other past productions have included Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” and Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus.”

Their next production in May will pair two favorites of Italian verismo, “Cavalleria rusticana” by Pietro Mascagni and “Pagliacci” by Ruggero Leoncavallo (colloquially known as “Cav-Pag”). It is already shaping up to be the largest scale-production in their history. “We’re putting a lot of energy into that because it’s a double bill of two one-act operas so it’s, like, two entirely different productions for the price of one,” Walley says.

Walley grew up in a musical home in Gladstone. His uncle was an opera singer. His grandmother and great-aunt grew up in West Virginia, and both were trained in opera. “My grandmother is definitely one of my biggest inspirations,” Walley says. “She became an organist and a singer and, to this day, she is still an organist at the age of 86.”

He earned music degrees from Indiana University and The University of Florida, and was trained in the Bel Canto singing technique. The historic approach puts an emphasis on lyrical lines connected by smooth legato and portamento; the development of distinct vocal registers (i.e., chest voice and head voice); and virtuosic ornamentation of the genre’s florid music.

While he enjoys the delightful Bel Canto comedies, he also appreciates the dramas and thrillers. “I love the tragedies, I love verismo, I love Verdi,” he says. It’s a good sign that all genres will be well represented in future productions.

Opera Magnifico will present “Don Pasquale” at The Stage at Liberty Corner Presbyterian Church, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 9 at 3 p.m. Visit operamagnifico.org.

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