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L’elisir d’amore
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Composer |
Gaetano Donizetti |
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Libretto |
F. Romani |
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Venue and Dates |
Los Angeles (Music Center Opera) September 1996 |
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Conductor |
Gabriele Ferro |
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Production |
Director: Stephen Lawless Sets: Johan Engels Lighting: Paul Pyant |
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Performer |
Adina : Allison Hagley Nemorino : Ramón Vargas Giannetta : Laurinda Nikkel |
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Notes |
Please do let us know if you have any more information on this production by emailing webmaster@geraldfinley.info |
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What the critics say
Donna Perlmutter, Opera News, September 1996
Nothing about the Music Center Opera's physical production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore even hinted at comedy. Thanks to an astute staging team and a splendid young cast that could carry out the real-life tribulations of characters who are all touching, even when humor threatens, naturalism ruled the day.
As the curtain opened on Johan Engels' stunning unit set, magically lit by Paul Pyant, such sober possibilities as a Chekhov farmhold, with servants as intimates, or Bertolucci's film 1900 came to mind. Director Stephen Lawless placed the action inside a barn whose huge, slatted gate of dark wood loomed over all; a pale sky, framing picturesque haystacks upstage, made for a strikingly luminous contrast. The decor became a springboard for interaction: workers (gathering wheat and shaving corn from cobs) mingled with the principals. Lawless' shrewd touches lent grateful dimension to the characters: Giannetta tried to vamp Belcore on his way to woo Adina, then sulked resentfully on failing. Nemorino showed his transformation from woebegone to triumphant by flinging heavy sacks of grain onto a wagon like Clark Kent changed to Superman.
Conductor Gabriele Ferro coordinated stage and pit with an intimate, subtly responsive account. And the cast, though not paragons of bel canto, reinforced a spirit of ensemble. Ramón Vargas had all the prerequisites for a gullible, lovesick Nemorino, his poised tenor boasting refined technique and tonal beauty. Allison Hagley, a gorgeous Adina, projected an exciting ping in her upper register, but she lacked midrange color and shading. These two seemed like figurines, though, next to Thomas Allen's Dulcamara: looking like Vincent Price without a moustache, his charlatan was a citified dandy who knew how to word-point disdain and deliver the patter with strength. Gerald Finley's macho Belcore and Laurinda Nikkel's grasping Giannetta were commanding and well sung.