Florentine Opera’s Rom-Com ‘d’amore’

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Photo by Traveling Lemur via The Florentine Opera - Instagram

The Florentine Opera ‘The Elixir of Love’

The Florentine Opera's ‘The Elixir of Love’

Few comic operas in the repertoire are actually funny. The Elixir of Love (L’elisir d’amore), with music by Gaetano Donizetti and libretto by Felice Romani, is one of countless comic operas which approximate comedy without many outright laughs. An often-performed mainstay, in its favor is a masterful bel canto score which unfailingly flatters the voice. 

It’s a rom-com kind of love story with twists and a happy ending of true love. The “elixir,” believed effective and giving confidence to Nemorino, is a questionable potion (or is it just wine?) pitched by the shady quack, Dulcamara. 

The Florentine Opera production of last weekend moved the scenario from an 18th century Spanish village to Napa Valley of the 1930s, with a large painted backdrop and a good-looking, unmoving two-story set piece designed by Lisa Schlenker. Christianne Myers’s period costumes add to the look. Beyond design, there is little that can be done to give the opera a completely different concept. Brenna Corner’s direction brought in some American informality rather than the stylized performance practices of 100 years earlier.

The first-rate cast was not only a testament to the singers themselves but also showed the consistently good taste in recent seasons of Florentine music director Francesco Milioto. Tenor Andrew Stenson’s lovestruck peasant Nemorino was charming and uninhibited, sung with expressive vibrancy and restrained elegance. This character sings the most famous aria in the score, “Una furtiva lagrima,” recorded by all great tenors since Enrico Caruso. 

Soprano Marie-Eve Munger’s landowner Adina, eventually earnestly matched with Nemorino, was sung with easy agility and evenness in tone. Her many high notes were sung as part of the phrase rather than an event unto themselves. Sergeant Belcore is Nemorino’s nemesis, sung with richness and appropriately pompous authority by Darren Drone. Baritone Zachary Nelson played Dulcamara with attractive swagger, making his well-sung florid lines integrally part of the character’s attempt to show off. Laura McCauley’s Giannetta was delivered with flirtatious, fun-loving lightness. 

Chorus master Benjamin Rivera prepared a convincing ensemble. Italian conductor Domenico Boyagian was insightful in his grasp of style, leading the singers and orchestra with sensitivity in tempo and phrase. As always, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, which featured several lovely solos, is likely the best and most reliable asset of Florentine, elevating anything the company does.