‘L’elisir d’amore’, the most cheerful Donizetti
The elixir of love is the first comic opera he composed Gaetano Donizetti and in which we are shown how Nemorino, a humble and dreamy peasant, is in love with a beautiful and cultured girl, Amina, but without much hope of obtaining her love, since, unlike her, he “will always be an idiot”, as he is responsible for expressing in the beautiful aria How beautiful, how expensive.
Amina likes Nemorino, but to test her love she flirts with a swaggering soldier named Belcore. When she says that she will marry Belcore, Nemorino, in desperation, turns to Dulcamara, a charlatan who sells witches and who will provide him with an elixir that, in theory, should allow him to seduce Amina. This elixir, however, is just wine, and the more he drinks, the more uninhibited Nemorino feels in front of Amina, which leads to a whole series of dramatic and funny situations at the same time.
At the end, after she listens to him sing the famous and beautiful aria soulfully A furtive tearis moved to find out his sincere love, turns on dida Belcore and confesses the love he feels for Nemorino. This happy ending is closed by the swindler Dulcamara selling his “effective” elixir of love to people at the dojo.
The main feature of this opera is that Donizetti introduces sentimental aspects to the central comic element of the plot, which distance it from theopera buffa classic and bring it closer to romanticism. Thus, comedy and pathos casual romance come together to deliver an entertaining, theatrically successful and musically brilliant product.
A true gem of ‘bel canto’
Indeed, The elixir of love is a real gem of the nice song which, musically, contains such light and joyful moments as the prelude, the fun duet Pure delight the barbara or the festive finale with Dulcamara selling her “prodigious” product to everyone (It corrects any defect), combined with sentimental and emotional moments such as the dramatic quartet Adina, believe methe aforementioned aria A furtive tear or Adina’s cavatina Take, for me sei libero (with little horse of Nemorino and final duet).
The Liceu presents a classic version of this opera by Mario Gasa montage that has been performed everywhere for some time, but which continues to work as well as on the first day. The Liceu Orchestra will be led by a bel canto conductor who is Venezuelan Diego Mathews and will have a first-class vocal cast: two bel canto “beasts” as they are will alternate in the role of Nemorino Javier Camarena — the best light lyric tenor out there today — and the always surprising barite tenor Michael Spiers. The sweetest Pretty Yende and the phenomenal Serena Saenz (the soprano from Barcelona has already successfully debuted on the world’s main lyrical stages) will combine the role of Adina. The milhomes Belcore will be performed by Carlos Pachon i Jan Anthemwhile Dulcamara will be in the hands of the best baritone buff current: Ambrogio Maestri.
In short, a fun opera that is a breath of fresh air and that, in addition, has a truly luxurious cast.
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