New York City Opera – Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. October 28, 2006.

New York State Theater at Lincoln Center – First Ring Right, Seat B10 ($112.50)

Conductor – George Manahan; Adina – Anna Skibinsky, Nemorino – John Tessier, Belcore – Paulo Szot, Dulcamara – Jan Opalach, Giannetta – Erin Morley.

Story. Nemorino is in love with Adina but receives a cold shoulder when he tells her about it. So Nemorina uses all his money to buy this potion from the traveling salesman Dulcamara. Dulcamara claims this is Tristan’s elixir but won’t take effect for a day, so Nemorino plays it cool when Adina approaches him. Thus angered, Adina agrees to marry the soldier Belcore immediately. In desperation, Nemorino enlists in the army so he can get the money to buy more potion to accelerate its effect. Meanwhile, Nemorino’s uncle passes away and leaves him a huge inheritance. Girls thus flock to Nemorino, making him think the elixir is working since he doesn’t know about the inheritance. When Adina finds out from Dulcamara that Nemorino is actually in love with her, she buys back his enlistment contract. They then find out about Nemorino’s inheritance, and everyone rejoices.

This is the first Donizetti opera I listened to. I am somewhat familiar with a couple of arias in Lucia di Lammermoor. Donizetti wrote over 70 operas, quite a few of them are still popular today. I have a long ways to go yet.

The opera begins with a traditional overture. While the themes are pleasant enough, somehow I find the parts not quite fitting together as a coherent piece, there were some flute passages that seemed particularly out of place.

The production is “modern,” the setting being a 1950s diner complete with leather jackets and a motorbike. It reminds me of Grease or the TV series Happy Days. Even the subtitles tend to mirror language used at that time, such as referring to girls as “chicks” and using phrases like “one hell of a …” Dlcamara’s entrance was in a convertible Ford Sunliner. I am not a fan of this sort of revisionism, evidently NY Opera feels the need to do so to appeal to a wider audience. Surprisingly, this production was first created for the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. I wonder if they used American dollars at the diner there? The advertisements for this opera cite elaborate praises of the production; I wonder who the reviewers are.

In general the singing was very good. Many of the arias are pleasant, but few are memorable. The notable exception is “Una Furtiva Lagrima,” sung by Nemorino when he realizes joyfully that Adina is actually in love with him. The audience was appreciative, although the applause was a bit overdone in my opinion.

This was an overall pleasant experience. The story was a bit loose, even for an opera. I probably would have enjoyed a more traditional setting (a horse drawn wagon instead of a car?), but the new production was okay.

See also the New York Times review of the performance.