Word: donizetti
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Judging by Zambello's history, that isn't a bad prediction. Six years ago, she staged Donizetti's popular Lucia di Lammermoor for New York City's Metropolitan Opera, and her vision of madness and death--the stage was strewn with coffins--drew catcalls from tuxedoed first-nighters expecting something considerably more romantic. In her version of Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride, presented last fall by the New York City Opera, the two principal male characters were stripped down to skimpy loincloths and chained together, to underline what Zambello believes to be the opera's homosexual subtext. "Cesca...
...might have been different had Bolton started studying voice 20 years ago, but belting ballads has worn his middle range to a thread. Though he squeezes out the necessary high notes, after a fashion, everything else is bad to the point of black comedy, from the flabby scooping in Donizetti's Una furtiva lagrima to the wimpy crooning in Puccini's Che gelida manina (real Italian tenors are not sensitive...
...vendor antics completely undercut his dramatic entrance and resonant "udite" ("listen!"), and his abracadabra, Darkwing Duck gesturings made one laugh out loud. If it hadn't been for the skillful comic acting of these two, the farcical plot would have been in awkward tension with the gorgeous music. Though Donizetti saves his very best for Nemorino's duets with Adina, every major character enjoys at least a few minutes of choice aria...
...opera needs no emphasis here because the production didn't emphasize it either: like almost every other opera buffa, "L'Elisir" has a lot to do with jealousy, wine, and a lot of coincidences. The details of Felice Romani's libretto are hardly indistinguishable from those of most of Donizetti's more than 30 other comedies, save for the introduction of a pharmacy on wheels. Here's all you need to know: Uniforms are sexy, but enough money can make anyone seem lovable. Bordeaux is worth whatever you pay for it. People are really, really stupid...
This production is the first of a two-part celebration of Donizetti's 200th birthday by the BLO. The second part, coming up in October, will be "Lucia di Lammermoor." "L'Elisir" continues tomorrow at 7:30 P.M., and concludes Sunday with a 3 P.M. matinee. Tickets are $25-$95, with half-price student rush two hours before each show...