Savoring the ‘Elixir’

Setting Gaetano Donizetti’s 1832 comic opera Elixir of Love in Napa Valley may seem a bit of stretch, especially when medicine man Dulcamara drives onto the Uihlein Hall stage in a 1930s truck to hawk his all-purpose elixir, but the score has enough charm to make it a comfortable, even engaging fit in the Florentine Opera’s final presentation this season.

An exceptionally exhilarating cast makes the sleight-of-hand libretto seem more engaging than it might have been in less inspired hands. Nemorino is in love with land-owning Adina but she has her sights on Belcore, a military officer stationed nearby. The always-ready-to-oblige Dulcamara promises a miracle of seduction to the unhappy suitor with his magic potion, a cheap merlot.

The singing carries it. As Adina, soprano Diana McVey produced a bevy of ringing high notes that not only rode above the orchestra with sweet bell-like precision but reminded us that fine lyric sopranos are not currently in abundance. No less impressive was Rolando Sanz’s Nemorino, who husbanded his beautiful smaller tenor voice with caution, not to compensate for its lack of large volume but to create a more poignant characterization of the rejected lover. He sang the famous show-stopper “Una furtiva lagrima” without the usual bellicose style adopted by more renowned tenors.

Corey McKern as Belcore required more time to warm up at Friday’s performance but improved gradually. Musa Ngqungwana as the manipulating dispenser of the elixir took a while to spread his charisma before he convinced the hapless Nemorino of the potion’s aphrodisiac power. Over all, this foursome was one of the finest casts the Florentines have assembled in quite some time. Their collection of trios and quartets was nothing less than thrilling and the forward vocal projection of the group was consistently compelling. Under the direction of Bill Florescu and the snappy conducting of Florentine favorite Joseph Rescigno, this was one of the most satisfying operatic evenings in quite some time.