Paris 1842, and Gaetano Donizetti at the height of his fame was casting around for a new opera for the Théâtre-Italien. As ever, seemingly pushed for time, he enlisted as co-conspirator Giovanni Ruffini who reworked Ser Marc’Antonio, an oldie but goodie from 1810 into a spruced up neat little four-hander. “I start rehearsing a new opera buffa that cost me more than ten days labour”, commented the ever-speedy composer, adding, somewhat shamefacedly: “It’s the old Marc’Antonio (don’t tell)”.

Don Pasquale, as the new opera was called, was the 43-year-old Donizetti’s sixty-fourth stage work no less and yet his imagination was undimmed and from the overture onwards the score abounds in memorable tunes of the popular sort that had made the composer’s name synonymous with the 19th-century musical equivalent of ‘the common touch’.

Roger Hodgman’s updated new production for Opera Australia is presented as an affectionate homage to William Wyler’s 1953 film Roman Holiday. Otherwise it is a conventional enough affair with plenty of gentle humour that should appeal to many and offend none. Musically, it’s a success, as Guillaume Tourniaire, a visibly dynamic figure in the pit, shapes Donizetti’s felicitous score with great aplomb.

Apart from a couple of exterior street scenes,...