Conductor Robert Kalb makes his Santa Fe Opera debut in this season’s revival of director Stephen Lawless’ 2009 production of The Elixir of Love and, from the sound of it—and the look on Kalb’s face during the opening night performance—he’s enjoying himself. So will everyone else.
Well, someone more inclined toward German operas and/or tragic endings may look askance at this 1832 opera buffa (comic opera), but even they will have to admire the beautiful music by renowned bello canto composer Gaetano Donizetti.
Donizetti wrote The Elixir of Love, swiftly (between two weeks and one month, depending on whom one asks). As opera lecturer Oliver Prezant notes in his don’t-miss pre-performance lecture, Donizetti was prolific. Indeed. A Kennedy Center biography credits him with 71 operas, 16 symphonies, 19 string quartets, 193 songs, 45 duets, three oratorios, 28 cantatas, not to mention myriad instrumental concertos, sonatas and more during his life (he died at 50).
In the case of The Elixir of Love, Donizetti and librettist Felice Romani adapted Eugène Scribe’s text for Daniel-François-Esprit Auber’s 1831 French opera Le Philtre. The plot follows rom-com rules. Goofy mechanic Nemorino (tenor Jonah Hoskins, a former Santa Fe Opera apprentice) loves Adina (soprano Yaritza Véliz, making her SFO debut), the most beautiful and powerful woman in the town. As the opera begins, Adina is reading to other townspeople the medieval romance of Tristan and Isolde, and their magic love potion. After Adina rebukes Nemorino’s declarations of love, he despondently watches the arrogant Sergeant Belcore (baritone and former apprentice Luke Sutliff) woo Adina, before beseeching the huckster Dulcamara (baritone Alfredo Daza, who premiered in this season’s La traviata), for a love potion of his own to win over Adina’s heart.
Dulcamara sells Nemorino cheap red wine (Bordeaux), which provides him with the wherewithal to ignore Adina. She, in turn, agrees to marry Belcore.
Lawless has reset the opera from rural 19th century village to circa 1945 just after World War II—hence the Army’s presence here—and, along with scenic and costume designer Ashley Martin-Davis, extends the opera’s intrinsic comedic elements and songs to a series of sight gags. These include one involving a chalkboard menu and a chicken, to which this story’s headline nods. The chickens aren’t real; the production’s many automobiles and one motorcycle (on which the priest summoned to marry Adina and Belcore arrives) are (although possibly none would be street legal). The large billboard that tracks the opera’s scene changes also heightens the ambience of the cloistered village in which the story unfolds.
All’s well that ends well in Act 2, when Adina tries to postpone her wedding and sheds a single tear alerting Nemorino to her love. He, in turn, has enlisted in the Army to secure enough money to buy more elixir. Meanwhile, an unexpected inheritance has made him a hot commodity among the ladies. The elixir was just cheap wine, but it somehow got the job done.
The whirlwind plot aside, The Elixir of Love contains numerous arias, duets and ensembles, and the singing in this performance is captivating. In addition to her beautiful voice, Véliz has tremendous charisma and stage presence. So did soprano and apprentice singer Cadie J. Bryan as Adina’s friend. All the male singers brought different shades of performance to this production—Daza’s rendition of Dulcamara’s sales-pitch aria in Act 1 was particularly winsome. But Hoskins’ rendition of the romantic aria “Una furtiva lagrima” (“a furtive tear”) in which he realizes Adina may in fact love him due to the tear he spots in her eye, steals the show (side note: The Aria Code podcast episode on this aria, “Good Things Come to Those Who Weep,” is a very fun analysis of this moment in the opera). Hoskins, both with his beautiful singing and acting, transforms Nemorino from yokel to hero.
“This is something that I adore about this opera,” Lawless says in an interview appearing in this season’s program. “The idea that the meek shall inherit the earth. Nemorino changes the world and everyone around him. Donizetti is a master of capturing this kind of complexity. He loves characters who are warm and have depth and make transitions.”
The obvious fun being had on stage and in the orchestra pit permeated the audience on opening night. Welcome back, The Elixir of Love!
Now, all five of this season’s operas are on the stage through the end of the season, each with a handful of remaining performances. The opera’s Apprentice Scenes, featuring staged scenes from tomorrow’s opera stars, takes place Aug. 11 and 18, with $5 youth tickets, and adult tickets ranging from $15 to $25. Catch a show while you can—it’s a wonderful season and it will soon come to an end.
The Elixir of Love
Music by Gaetano Donizetti/ libretto by Felice Romani
8 pm, July 31, Aug. 9, 14 and 22
Seated ticket prices range from $37 to $409. SRO is $15. First time buyers with New Mexico ID can receive 40% off a pair of tickets. Call or visit the Box Office for the most up to date information and pricing, or visit santafeopera.org.