NORINA               Mme. GRISI. 
ERNESTO              Sig.  MARIO. 
DR. MALATESTA        Sig.  TAMBURINI. 
DON PASQUALE         Sig.  LABLACHE.

The scene of this brilliant and gay little opera is laid in Rome.  Don Pasquale is in a rage with Ernesto, his nephew, because he will not marry to suit him.  Dr. Malatesta, his friend and physician, who is also very much attached to the nephew, contrives a plot in the latter’s interest.  He visits the Don, and urges him to marry a lady, pretending that she is his sister, though in reality she is Norina, with whom Ernesto is in love.  He then calls upon Norina, and lets her into the secret of the plot, and instructs her how to play her part.  She is to consent to the marriage contract, and then so harass the Don that he will not only be glad to get rid of her, but will give his consent to her marriage with Ernesto.  The second act opens in Don Pasquale’s house, where Ernesto is bewailing his fate.  The Don enters, magnificently dressed, and ready for the marriage.  Norina appears with Malatesta, and feigns reluctance to enter into the contract; but when the notary arrives she consents to sign.  No sooner, however, has she signed it than she drops her assumed modesty.  Ernesto, who is present, is bewildered at the condition of affairs, but is kept quiet by a sign from the Doctor.  Norina refuses all the Don’s amatory demonstrations, and declares Ernesto shall be her escort.  She summons the servants, and lays out a scheme of housekeeping so extravagant that the Don is enraged, and declares he will not pay the bills.  She insists he shall, for she is now master of the house.  In the third act we find Norina entertaining milliners and modistes.  Don Pasquale enters, and learning that she is going to the theatre forbids it, which leads to a quarrel, during which Norina boxes his ears.  As she leaves the room she drops a letter, the reading of which adds the pangs of jealousy to his other troubles.  The Doctor at this juncture happens in and condoles with him.  The Don insists that Norina shall quit his house at once.  In the next scene he taxes her with having a lover concealed in the house, and orders her to leave.  The Doctor counsels him to let his nephew marry Norina; and in the course of explanations the Don discovers that the Doctor’s sister and Norina are one and the same person, and that the marriage was a sham.  He is only too glad of an escape to quarrel with the Doctor for his plot, and the young couple are speedily united, and have the old man’s blessing.

The charm of the opera lies in its comic situations, and the gay, bright music with which they are illustrated.  It is replete with humor and spirit, and flows along in such a bright stream that it is almost impossible to cull out special numbers, though it contains two duets and a quartet which are of more than ordinary beauty, and the exquisite serenade in the last act, “Com’e gentil,” which has been heard on almost every concert-stage of the world, and still