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Conjugal Imbroglio Bergamo
Teatro Sociale
11/15/2025 - & November 23, 28*, 2025
Gaetano Donizetti: Il campanello
Lucrezia Tacchi (Serafina), Eleonora de Prez (Madama Rosa), Pierpaolo Martella (Don Annibale Pistacchio), Francesco Bossi (Enrico), Giovanni Dragano (Spiridione)
Gaetano Donizetti: Deux hommes et une femme
Cristina De Carolis (Rita), Cristóbal Campos Marín (Pepé), Alessandro Corbelli (Gaspard)
Ugo Mahieux (piano), Coro dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala, Salvo Sgrò (chorus master), Orchestra Gli Originali, Enrico Pagano (conductor)
Stefania Bonfadelli (stage director), Serena Rocco (sets), Valeria Donata Bettella (costumes), Fiammetta Baldiserri (lighting)
(© Studio U.V./Courtesy Donizetti Opera - Fondazione Teatro Donizetti)
Founded in 1981, the Donizetti Festival, which takes place each November in Bergamo, the composer’s native city north east of Milan, revives many of the bel canto composer’s more obscure operas while reestablishing his better known works in definitive editions. One of the performances at this year’s edition was a double bill of two one‑act works, Il campanello (1836) and Deux hommes et une femme (1841).
Both short operas are bittersweet comedies involving matrimonial complications. Though the former takes place in nineteenth century Naples, characterised by typically Neapolitan humour, and the latter, a century earlier at an inn somewhere between Turin and Genoa, director Stefania Bonfadelli managed to create unity between both works. This involved making the setting of Il campanello, a Neapolitan apothecary, and that of Deux hommes et une femme, a villeggiatura mountain inn, adjacent establishments in 1960s Naples, in an homage to the commedia all’italiana films of Mario Monicelli (1915‑2010).
Not content to simply juxtapose the sets of the two operas, Bonfadelli created fluidity between the two by having characters of one appear as extras in the other. This highly imaginative idea created continuity and enhanced our enjoyment of the works. It also made excellent use of the Coro dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala, who convincingly portrayed freeloading guests at a wedding ceremony.
This juxtaposition was dramatically effective, but given the disparity between the works, it emphasized the weaknesses of Il campanello and the strengths of Deux hommes et une femme. Though composed in 1836, after major works such as Anna Bolena (1830), L’elisir d’amore (1832), Lucrezia Borgia (1833), Maria Stuarda (1835) and Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), Il campanello is uncharacteristically bereft of memorable tunes. The comedy’s plot involves the wedding of an older apothecary, Don Annibale, to a younger woman, Serafina, who’s ended her affair with her womanizing cousin, Enrico. Enrico is intent on depriving Annibale of his wedding night and getting back into his cousin’s bed. Though Bonfadelli chose not to make Annibale too much older than Serafina and Enrico, she made the apothecary an overly earnest man, more dedicated to his profession than to his personal life, which is valid. Enrico is variously disguised as a sick man; an irritating opera singer; and finally an old man. They all ring the pharmacy’s night bell, demanding copious amounts of medicines, all contrived to impede the marriage’s consummation. When dawn breaks, poor Don Annibale has to leave on a trip to Rome without having done the deed.
The singers in Il campanello, all students in Bergamo’s Bottega Donizetti, were competent but not particularly striking. The most promising was young Italian baritone Pierpaolo Martella, who portrayed the young pharmacist. Soprano Lucrezia Tacchi was an excellent soubrette, and dramatically convincing, but her high soprano often sounded shrill. Baritone Francesco Bossi had a strong stage presence and a pleasant, darker timbre.
The short opera, Deux hommes et une femme, is vastly superior to Il campanello in every regard. The humour is biting, and the resolution is quite sardonic. Known until recently as Rita ou le mari battu, it’s since been rebaptized with its original name. The short opera involves innkeeper Rita, who is abusive to her husband, to the extent that she beats him. She was previously married to a sailor who used to beat her. Her husband perished at sea, or so she thinks, and her home and entire village burnt down. Rita remade her life, bought the inn and married a compliant man. Gasparo, accompanied by his Canadian fiancée, is none other than the husband Rita thought had drowned.
The two recognize each other but pretend not to, as neither has any appetite to give up their present lives. However, Pepé, the abused husband, who registers Gasparo at the inn and wants to escape his predicament, wants Gasparo to take Rita back. Rita is not interested, until Gasparo reveals he lost an arm at sea, and is hence unable to beat his wife. This tempts Rita to take him back instead of her submissive Pepé. When Gasparo reveals this was a ruse to snatch the marriage contract so that he may marry his Canadian bride, Rita reconciles with Pepé and agrees to abstain from aggression.
While Il campanello is basically the mocking of a naive man, who is cuckolded even before consummating his marriage, Deux hommes et une femme is a comedy with a dénouement, where both Rita and Pepé are positively transformed. In addition to a more rewarding story, the latter opera is much more sophisticated musically. Written right after La Fille du regiment (1840), it shares a lot with the more famous French opera; the orchestration is as rich, the melodies as catchy and the humour at least as sophisticated. One trio is even reminiscent of the famous “Tous les trois réunis”. Moreover, the vocal writing gives ample opportunity for the singers to shine, especially the tenor. Chile’s Cristóbal Campos Marín is a revelation. Endowed with a beautiful tenor that promises to blossom into a major bel canto voice, Campos Marín is delightfully at ease on stage. His large size did not hinder him from moving on stage with agility. He even used his girth as an asset, portraying the sweet, somewhat naive homme‑enfant to perfection.
Fortunately, soprano Cristina De Carolis was an equally impressive actress able to match Campos Marin’s thespian prowess. She was brilliant at portraying the innkeeper as a bullying harpy. One immediately felt sympathy for the battered husband and antipathy for the domineering matron. Though of a similar young age as the tenor, De Carolis managed to easily portray a middle‑aged woman. Her diction was almost as good as Campos Marín’s, but the surprise was Alessandro Corbelli’s superb French, that even rivals that of native speakers. Corbelli is one of the leading Mozart and bel canto singers of his generation, and his collaboration with the young singers is almost certainly a major reason for the short French opera’s success.
Enrico Pagano led the original instrument ensemble Gli Originali with gusto in the French opera. However, he failed to bring to life the first opera. This was true for both orchestra and soloists, who seemed undersupported, unhelped by the orchestra. Nonetheless, this was a delightful lighthearted evening, and a major revelation in Deux hommes et une femme. Hopefully, it will lead to more performances of this gem.
Ossama el Naggar
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