Gaetano Donizetti may have been one of the most prolific of bel canto composers—he wrote close to 70 operas—but his versatility equaled his talents. However, his most beloved comic opera, enhanced by the attention derived from performances by Maria Callas and Beverly Sills, is Elixir of Love.
Elixir has immediate, accessible appeal with an uncomplicated story line enhanced by a consistently charming melodic flow. Written rather hurriedly within a mere six weeks and premiered in 1832, it remains one of the most-performed operas worldwide. The bucolic charm of the story digests as smoothly as a delectable bonbon. Simpleminded Nemorino is tricked by a traveling medicine man, Dulcamara, to buy a bottle of the elixir of love (a cheap Bordeaux wine) to enhance his appeal to Adina, who teases him with her attentions to a soldier. Things change when Nemorino discovers he is heir to a fortune. (Oh, for those predictable coincidences in comic opera with the certain anticipation of even more melodic duets to follow! Oh, the endless possibilities yet in store!)
What does follow is Nemorino’s plaintive aria, “Una fortiva lagrima,” always a sure showstopper.
Bill Florescu, general director of the Florentine Opera, takes a spirited view of their upcoming production. “We’ve set the opera in Napa valley in the 1930s. The whole concept of the show revolves around the charlatan Dulcamara, selling cheap wine with sensual powers.” The updates include Dulcamara riding up in a 1937 pickup truck. “Adina is an independent woman, a vineyard owner with her own mind,” Florescu continues.” She is supposedly in love with a soldier conveniently stationed at a nearby base.”
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He describes the opera as a comedy with a romantic heart whose protagonist is a self-motivated woman of means. “The work is too easily dismissed as comic fluff, but the score is considerably more substantial, containing some of Donizetti’s finest music,” Florescu says. “This promises to be an Elixir of Love with an audience-pleasing, contemporary cutting edge.”
May 8 and May 10 at Uihlein Hall, Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, visit florentineopera.org or call 1-800-32-OPERA.
Classical Happening
Philomusica String Quartet
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music
1584 N. Prospect Ave.
7:30 p.m., May 11
For their season closer, the Philomusica String Quartet performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13, which contains, unusually, six movements, one of which, the lovely Cavatina, was chosen to represent Earth’s culture on the Voyager space probe. Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F Minor is in a traditional four-movement structure, including a Schubertian scherzo, allegro and a magnificent finale that, per author and musicologist Conrad Wilson, “begins slowly and gropingly” and contains “the most melancholy moments in the entire work.” Even so, the quintet concludes with a majestic, passionate coda. (John Jahn)
