Bright and colourful, Deutsche Oper's new production of Donizetti’s L'elisir d’amore does justice to the classic story of a quack love potion and the consequences of timing and good luck. Updated to the 1950s and involving the antics of a travelling theatre company and rogue doctor, the new staging is good clean fun with excellent singing and just a hint of naughtiness to keep things spicy.
L'elisir d’amore tells the story of a young man in love with a local beauty, but too shy to do anything about it. A “love potion” – really a bottle of Bordeaux sold by the quack doctor, Dulcamara – enables young Nemorino to feel just brave enough to make his feelings known. However, as he does so by playing hard-to-get, he incites Adina to declare her feelings for the cavalier Sergeant Belcore instead. The resulting shenanigans involve a rich, deceased uncle, a chorus of women who know people's business before they do themselves, and a lot of cheap wine. This being comic opera at its best, the show ends happily for all involved, with Adina and Nemorino finally finding solace in each other's arms. It is silly, sparkly and outrageous, and has been a hit since Donizetti composed it in 1832.
Updated to the 1950s, the new Deutsche Oper L'elisir is the brainchild of director Irina Brook, known for her work in the theatre. Much of Brook’s work centres around Shakespeare, and there is a nod to this, with Adina part of a band of travelling theatre company attempting to rehearse a play of vaguely Shakespearean proportions. Adina, sung excellently by Heidi Stober, is a fast-talking, flirtatious director, so wrapped up in the romance and glamour of her career that she puts a different costume over her own clothes for each of her interactions with the other principals. Stober is a good choice for Adina, her voice sparkling but with a heft that gives Donizetti's coloratura weight. When she realizes that Nemorino loves her, she immediately finds herself a soldier, just to make him mad, then continually puts him off. Adina, we come to understand, doesn’t quite know what it is that she actually wants.
Nemorino, a lowly janitor, knows exactly what he wants, but is too shy to go about getting it. When Adina dons a flowery gown and recites the story of Tristan and Isolde, he is just foolish enough to believe that such a love potion actually exists, thus playing right into the hands of Dulcamara who, though not knowing who Isolde is, sells him a bottle of cheap wine. Sung by tenor Dimitri Pittas, Nemorino is sweet, ardent, shy, and truly faithful to the girl he adores. We believe him when he says that he would rather die a soldier (he enlists in Belcore’s regiment to buy more “potion”) than to endure a life without Adina. Bolstered by booze, he struts and dances around the stage, but never becomes mean or unkind. Nemorino is the ideal man for Heidi Stober’s delightful Adina: unlike the macho Belcore, he will never be put off by the strong woman he has fallen for. Like most fairy tales, they will live happily ever after.