Word: donizetti
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...Boston Lyric Opera's "L'Elisir d'Amore," everyone was amazed. The lighting evoked Bellini's "The Feast of the Gods," or the video to "Losing My Religion." Aggressively rustic patchwork dresses and apple baskets, along with a frail red wooden ladder, made certain that this Donizetti comedy would not suffer from any absurd modern setting. The simple but handsome picture frame around the luscious stage set was a perfect touch. Anything so beautiful as all this, one thought, promises to be entertaining...
...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...
Roncalli was born in the first ridge of mountains east of Lake Como, and looked to the great Renaissance city of Bergamo, not Rome, as his capital. He thought of himself all his life as Bergamese. Donizetti was his favorite composer; he got another Bergamese, Giacomo Manzu, to design one of the great bronze doors of St. Peter's, and he liked to surround himself, as Pope, with Bergamese clergy...