United Kingdom Garsington Opera 2025 [2] – Donizetti, L’elisir d’amore: Soloists, Garsington Opera Refrain, Philharmonia Orchestra / Chloe Rooke (conductor). Garsington Opera at Wormsley, 7.6.2025. (CR)
Manufacturing:
Director – Christopher Luscombe
Designer – Simon Higlett
Lighting – Mark Jonathan
Motion director – Rebecca Howell
Refrain director – Jonathon Cole-Swinard
Forged:
Nemorino – Oleksiy Palchykov
Adina – Madison Leonard
Belcore – Carles Pachon
Dr Ducamara – Richard Burkhard
Giannetta – Charlotte Jane Kennedy
Troopers – Stephen Walker, Yonwaba Mbo
Following their manufacturing of The Barber of Seville for Garsington in 2023, director Christopher Luscombe and designer Simon Higlett comply with up with a setting for Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore that’s equally vibrant and naturalistic in its element – right here the picturesque sq. of an outdated Italian village. However relatively than a simple historicist studying of the opera, this serves because the backdrop for astute social comedy and a substantial amount of theatrical fervour because the story is introduced forwards into the interval across the finish of the Second World Warfare. Brash modernity sweeps in with Dr Ducamara as a shady besuited entrepreneur in his crimson sports activities automobile, carrying his quack potions, and with Belcore as an American GI.
The village already has some contact with the altering instances as Adina has a Vespa scooter, and there’s a petrol pump together with the sq., suggesting some flirtation with the advances of the broader world. However there’s additionally a sturdy and historical nicely head at its centre, nevertheless, absolutely standing because the image for a extra pure supply of liquid nourishment than both the faux elixirs and medicines which Ducamara has to supply, or the petrol as gas for engines, simply as Adina ultimately reconciles herself with Nemorino’s extra genuine – if awkward – attraction, rather than Belcore’s braggadocio.
Rebecca Howell’s motion course ensures a constantly vigorous choreography that makes use of nearly each obtainable house and nook of the set, with out changing into distracting. There are some visible jokes with Nemorino’s try to woo the callously detached Adina in her balcony, like a satire upon Romeo and Juliet; and their coupling up afterward is organized as a canoodling on a bit of the desk that was set for her and Belcore’s hurried marriage ceremony, rising over the adjoining tables with the lovers on it as like real-life figures atop a marriage cake. Ambiance is deepened, nevertheless, by the opera’s development from daytime to nighttime accompanied by the pure onset of darkness exterior the auditorium on the Wormsley Property, making for a mellow aura when Nemorino’s well-known aria, ‘Una furtiva lagrima’, comes, with fantastically veiled bassoon and harp.
In that position, Ukrainian tenor Oleksiy Palchykov is charismatic, each in his agile actions throughout the stage – for a lot of the opera he’s below the affect of Ducamara’s sham potion which is nothing greater than a bottle of wine – and in his ardently sustained singing. A sure grit in his tone lends his efficiency the apt expression of the character’s desperation, relatively than merely being a lyrical tenor, reaching his biggest depth and management within the above-mentioned aria in Act II, in addition to his duet with Ducamara. As Adina, Madison Leonard equally blossoms forth extra in Act II, after a extra velvety hue within the first, with brilliant, extrovert coloratura as she recognises her true emotions.
Carles Pachon conveys Belcore’s swagger with successful fluency, whereas Richard Burkhard delivers Ducamara’s sly garrulity with greater than a glint within the eye, avoiding bitterness or cynicism, and making him extra a lovable rogue than a criminal. Charlotte Jane Kennedy completes the proficient solid, as Giannetta.
An impressed account of the music from conductor Chloe Rooke units a perfect tempo for this effervescent comedy which isn’t with out deep sentiment. The Philharmonia Orchestra domesticate a trendy lightness of contact and vitality which compliments the motion on the stage, by no means drowning it, and the Garsington Opera Refrain additionally make a vibrant contribution. Musical and dramatic components come collectively effortlessly in establishing the opera’s uplifting and warm-hearted Italian spirit – a pleasant leisure all of the extra welcome on the event of copious rain throughout this efficiency!
Curtis Rogers
