L’elisir d’amore

Published Monday 15 October 2007 at 15:40 by Edward Bhesania

Donizetti may have injected passion and deeply held sentiment into the otherwise stock comic characters of L’elisir d’amore (‘The Elixir of Love’), but Glyndebourne on Tour’s new production by Annabel Arden seems to be in denial that this is in fact an opera buffa. Sergeant Belcore’s trumped-up claims of his allure to women are robbed of their bumptiousness; and the potion-touting quack Dulcamara whips up little excitement among the village folk with his slick promises - no doubt partly obfuscated by the accompanying projected animations. And the encounter between the lovestruck Nemorino and the beautiful Adina, staged during the Prelude, needlessly gives away the game.

But Dulcamara’s musical contribution to Adina’s pre-wedding party, with the help of his cross-dressed assistant, raises laughs, and Les Brotherston’s crumbling façade set is both evocative and practical.

Though he lacks an Italianate ringing tone, Peter Auty sings Nemorino with flair and sophistication, even if his portrayal is perhaps too knowing. His Adina, Adriana Kucerová, is as transparent and capricious vocally as she is flirtatiously confident. While Eliana Pretorian makes an impact in the tiny role of Giannetta, Luciano Di Pasquale’s Dulcamara is often vocally laboured - his celebrated patter aria is released with all the fizz of his tired remedies.

Spanish-born Enrique Mazzola, in his Glyndebourne debut, saves the evening, keeping a tight grip on his forces and eliciting rhythmic precision while revealing telling expressive colours. One only hopes that the lack of joy in this production might be addressed with L’elisir’s reincarnation for the Glydnebourne Festival in two years’ time.