[Met Performance] CID:352973



L'Elisir d'Amore
Metropolitan Opera House, Tue, March 31, 2009
Broadcast




L'Elisir d'Amore (253)
Gaetano Donizetti | Felice Romani
Adina
Angela Gheorghiu

Nemorino
Massimo Giordano

Belcore
Franco Vassallo

Dr. Dulcamara
Simone Alaimo

Giannetta
Ying Huang


Conductor
Maurizio Benini


Production
John Copley

Designer
Beni Montresor

Lighting Designer
Gil Wechsler

Stage Director
Sharon Thomas





Broadcast live on Sirius and XM Metropolitan Opera Radio
Streamed at metopera.org
L'Elisir d'Amore received seven performances this season
Production photos of L'Elisir d'Amore by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera.

Review 1:

Verena Dobnik for the Associated Press
Gheorghiu Shines in Met?s ?The Elixir of Love??

The Metropolitan Opera's production of "The Elixir of Love" was notable for one absence ? of star tenor Rolando Villazon.


The Mexican singer plagued by cancellations and vocal glitches since last year was replaced Tuesday by Italian tenor Massimo Giordano for the season [first][first] night of Gaetano Donizetti's bubbly farce.


Without Villazon, who already announced last week that he wouldn't sing, citing laryngitis, soprano Angela Gheorghiu took the spotlight as Adina in this heartfelt story about a country bumpkin trying to win the love of a lady.


The Romanian soprano was at her best, sounding sublime in Donizetti's fioritura ? flowery vocal embellishments she tossed off with technical ease and a clear, sumptuous timbre.


Gheorghiu joined Giordano in "Esulti pur la barbara," a lilting duet in which Nemorino feigns indifference to Adina. Gheorghiu has recorded this music with her husband, tenor Roberto Alagna, who is both adorably funny and vulnerable as the lovesick Nemorino.


The same could not be said for Giordano, a native of Pompeii, Italy, whose voice was generally solid, but lacked the sweet, lyric subtlety required for the charming Nemorino.


He buys an elixir from Dr. Dulcamara, a traveling charlatan who sells potions ? hence, "L'Elisir d'Amore," the work's Italian title. Nemorino hopes the drink will help him win over Adina, who also is being courted by Sgt. Belcore, a blowhard who finally loses her to Nemorino; the part was robustly sung by baritone Franco Vassallo.


The false elixir only gets the young man drunk ? on wine.


As Dulcamara, Italian bass Simone Alaimo arrived on a colorful coach pulled by cardboard horses in the 1991 John Copley production. Alaimo won over the audience with his rich, boisterous shenanigans, holding nothing back with his hilarious "snake oil" sales method.


Giordano demonstrated that he's capable of slapstick humor too, at one point slicing an apple and tossing pieces in the direction of Adina and Belcore.


But in "Una Furtiva Lagrima" ? the famous Act 2 aria that shows the true caliber of a tenor ? Giordano sounded pedestrian, lacking the melting expressiveness and dynamic range of a lover whose hopes are aroused.


Luciano Pavarotti was the Met's first-string Nemorino for decades, setting the standard for a part that Villazon has sung with perfect comic timing and vocal agility.


Tuesday's performance got off to a leaden start, with Maurizio Benini's stiff-armed conducting producing erratic tempi that kept throwing the singers off ? alternating from so fast he was difficult to follow to sluggishness.


This 2 1/2-hour work needs singers with voices and personalities that come together in an ensemble sparkling with love and laughter. There were such moments here and there, but all too often, the singers each did his or her own thing.


Opera-loving ears will be listening on April 8, when Villazon is scheduled to return to the Met stage as Nemorino.



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