A Lovely Elixir for the Royal Opera House – L’Elisir D’Amore review

Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore is perhaps the best constructed, most enjoyable and the most genuinely funny of all comic operas and its current production at the Royal Opera is the most hilariously perfect I have ever seen.

There are three main characters: Nemorino is an honest but simple county boy passionately in love with Adina, who is the owner of the farm where he works.

He knows he is not good enough for her and is in any case too shy to declare his love, but wishes for a love potion (the elisir d’amore of the title) to make her fall in love with him. Then the itinerant quack Dr Dulcamara arrives in the town and responds to Nemorino’s pleas by selling him the elixir he asks for, which is actually nothing but red wine.

Nemorino swigs the wine, confident that it will make him irresistible to Adina and quickly finds himself surrounded by girls competing for his attention. What he does not know is that news has spread among the girls that Nemorino’s rich uncle had died leaving him a fortune and making him the most eligible bachelor in town.

There are several more comic twists to the plot before Nemorino and Adina are finally together and the entire cast exploit every twist to its full comic potential.

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Armenian tenor Liparit Avetisyan combines a fine voice with brilliant comic acting and a fine repertoire of funny facial gestures, which are totally matched by those of American soprano Nadine Sierra, making their scenes together a match for any great comic double act.

With the great Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel superbly funny as Dulcamara, the entire show is a glorious comedy from start to finish.

My only slight reservation about the performance was the slight lack of control shown by the Italian conductor Sesto Quatrini, who occasionally seemed to have problems keeping the orchestra and singers together. This is bound to improve as the run progresses.

I have often said that anyone who likes musicals will be likely to enjoy comic opera even more, and Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore is the perfect example. It is the perfect first opera for anyone, and this revival is as good as you will see anywhere.

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This production by Laurent Pelly was first seen at Covent Garden in 2007, but the revival director Paul Higgins is to be congratulated on adding to the humour with some delightful touches and giving the cast full opportunity to introduce their own idiosyncratic expressions and gestures, increasing everyone’s fun.

Box Office: roh.org.uk or 020 7304 4000 (various dates until October 5).

This opera will be screened live in various cinemas from 7.15pm on Thursday October 5. 

See roh.org.uk/about/cinema for screening details.

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