L'elisir d'amore at Covent Garden
Laurent Pelly's wonderful production of probably Donizetti's most popular concoction, L'elisir d'amore is revived at Covent Garden, the year after its première there. Giuseppe Filianoti and Diana Damrau sing the Nemorino and Adina, with Bruno Campanella conducting.
Surely the most prolific of all Italian opera composers, Donizetti wrote just under 70 operas between 1816 and 1843 (before succumbing to syphilitic madness in 1844 and dying four years later), which compares favourably to the many fewer by Rossini, Verdi or Puccini. However, unlike these three, only a handful of his works still hold a place in the repertoire. One of the undisputed favourites is his comedy L'elisir d'amore.
The story concerns love-struck Nemorino, who fears that the girl he loves, Adina, really loves a local army sergeant, Belcore. He decides to buy a love potion from Dulcamara, believing it will make him irresistible to Adina. But when that doesn't seem to work he too decides to join the army, only to use his conscription payment to buy another potion.
Suddenly all the girls seem to want to know him (although that's only because they're first to know he's come into a sizeable inheritance) and this has the desired effect. Adina is jealous and realises that Nemorino is really the one for her. Meanwhile, Dulcamara capitalises on the situation and does a roaring trade in his potions.
Before Pelly's co-production with Opéra national de Paris, it had been a decade since L'elisir d'amore was performed at Covent Garden. Its return continued music director Antonio Pappano's intention to refresh the Royal Opera's core repertoire.
Pelly's is the most bucolic of productions, complete with hay bales, tractors, scooters and bicycles as befits Pelly's updating to 1950s rural Italy. Joining Filianoti and Damrau are Sicilian bass-baritone Simone Alaimo as Dulcamara, Anthony Michaels-Moore as Belcore and Jette Parker Young Artists, Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura as Giannetta.
Antonio Pappano's seventh season as music director of the Royal Opera has judiciously mixed choice revivals with new productions. It continues with Pappano himself conducting a new production of Berg's Lulu.
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