The season continues with Gaetano Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

I was fairly doubtful going there; the reviews had been unenthusiastic, and I remembered the previous performance in the old opera house (now Alexander Theatre) as stupid and boring. This time it is set in Sicily of the 1950s: in the programme it is said that it was the last period when this kind of plot had any credibility. I very much doubt this kind of fake marriage would have been believable in any period. In real life the 70 year old Don Pasquale would have had to be demented, probably dementia with Lewy bodies, to be taken in by it.

It seems others sharred my doubts as the house was half empty. I can understand that if a person goes to the opera once a year, Don Pasquale is not their first choice; why pay the price of a gourmet meal for an ice cream? But this ice cream was quite delicious: mint and lemon with whipped cream and crushed almonds, I think.