Comic opera in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by Felice Romani
Conductor MAURIZIO BENINI

Adina  EKATERINA SIURINA
Nemorino  PETER AUTY
Sergeant Belcore  ALFREDO DAZA
Dr Dulcamara  LUCIANO DI PASQUALE
Giannetta  ELIANA PRETORIAN
Dr Dulcamara’s assistant  JAMES BELLORINI

Set in an idyllic vision of a Southern Italian village square, Donizetti’s delightful opera tells of the romantic rivalry between the penniless Nemorino and the bumptious Sergeant Belcore for the love of the beautiful, bookish Adina, whose reading of the tale of Tristan and Isolde makes poor lovesick Nemorino think that the wonder-working Dr Dulcamara might have just the potion his heart requires.

Witty, charming and ultimately deeply touching, this is Italian opera at its intoxicating best. The score bubbles over with high spirits, the action is genuinely funny and though, as in all the best comedies, the laughter is occasionally tinged with tears, true love eventually wins the day – all thanks to a bottle or two of Bordeaux. No wonder L’elisir d’amore has long been among Donizetti’s most popular works.

Annabel Arden’s production was first staged for Glyndebourne on Tour in 2007. Praised by one critic for possessing “the juiciest, most Italianate timbre of any British tenor”, Peter Auty returns to the role of Nemorino, with Russian soprano Ekaterina Siurina making her Glyndebourne debut as Adina. Also making his Glyndebourne debut is internationally acclaimed conductor Maurizio Benin

 

ACT I
In a small village somewhere in Italy a poor young man called Nemorino is hopelessly in love with the capricious and unobtainable Adina. The villagers, led by Giannetta, Adina’s right-hand woman, make fun of his obsessions. Nemorino listens longingly as Adina reads aloud to her farm-workers the story of Tristan and Isolde whose love was inflamed by the drinking of a magic potion.

A stranger arrives in the village, Sergeant Belcore, who immediately begins to flirt with Adina. Nemorino is miserably jealous, and appalled when Belcore asks Adina to marry him. She neither accepts Belcore, nor does she absolutely refuse him. Fearful of losing Adina, Nemorino declares his love for her: kindly but firmly, she turns him down.

A second stranger now appears – the exotic Doctor Dulcamara, claiming to have a miraculous cure. Advertising his potion to the villagers, he makes a killing. Nemorino, believing that the doctor is heaven-sent, asks him if he stocks Isolde’s love potion. Quick to seize the opportunity of making extra money, Dulcamara produces the ‘elixir of love’. It will not, he warns, take effect for 24 hours: by the time Nemorino discovers it is nothing but wine (Bordeaux), the ‘doctor’ will have left the village. Nemorino, who has never drunk alcohol before, empties the bottle and immediately grows cheerful and confident. He pretends to be indifferent to Adina, who is piqued, and to provoke Nemorino she agrees to marry Belcore within six days. But just at that moment the soldiers arrive with orders from their commander to leave the village the following morning. Belcore therefore presses Adina to marry him that very evening. Nemorino is desperate: by the time the love potion works its magic, Adina will be married. He pleads with her, but she, showing all the caprice of her nature, has set her will against him. To the excitement of the whole village, preparations for the wedding go ahead.

ACT II
The pre-wedding party is in full swing. Dulcamara and his mischievous servant perform a racy song with Adina. Belcore summons the local lawyer to arrange the marriage contract, but Adina – annoyed by Nemorino’s absence – decides to wait before putting pen to paper. Nemorino, half out of his mind with the fear of losing Adina, begs Dulcamara for another dose of the love potion. Dulcamara will supply the potion only for hard cash. The penniless Nemorino is thus a sitting target for his rival Belcore, who offers him money to enlist as a soldier. Nemorino signs up and goes off to town, the newest member of the regiment.

What Nemorino does not know is that he has just inherited a fortune thanks to the death of his uncle. But Giannetta has heard the news, and passes it on to all the women in the village. Suddenly, Nemorino has become the most eligible local bachelor. He, of course, believes his popularity is caused by the elixir. Dulcamara also begins to believe in the magical effects of his own potion.

Adina, fearing that she will lose Nemorino to another woman, is finally able to acknowledge the strength of her feelings for him; and in a sophisticated and sympathetic tête-à-tête with Dulcamara resolves to win him back. Nemorino dares to hope his dream may come true – he has seen a tell-tale tear in his beloved’s eye. He is rewarded: Adina, having repaid Belcore the recruitment fee, confesses to Nemorino that she really does love him. When they hear of the inheritance, their happiness is complete. Belcore is obliged to search for women elsewhere, and Doctor Dulcamara, attributing all this happiness to the power of the elixir, departs in triumph.


LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Leader PIETER SCHOEMAN
THE GLYNDEBOURNE CHORUS
Chorus Master THOMAS BLUNT
Forte Piano JONATHAN HINDEN

Director  ANNABEL ARDEN
Designer  LEZ BROTHERSTON
Lighting Designer  GIUSEPPE DI IORIO
Associate/Movement Director  LEAH HAUSMAN

Assistant Conductor THOMAS BLUNT
Music Preparation INGRID SURGENOR, JONATHAN HINDEN
Language Coach MARCO CANEPA
Assistant Director BRUNO RAVELLA