Love potion number 9

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Disgusted with the way your Facebook friends are cheerfully spreading bogus news items without bothering to fact check them?  Convinced that the Internet is turning us into a nation of credulous chumps who will buy anything?  As Opera Theatre is demonstrating this weekend, P.T. Barnum's observation about a sucker being born every minute is nothing new.

This Saturday, Opera Theatre opens its second production of the season, Gaetano Donizetti's 1832 melodramma giocoso (that's "comic opera" to us Anglophones) "The Elixir of Love."  Based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's popular comedy Le philtre  from 1831, Felice Romani's book for "The Elixir of Love" is the story of Nemorino, a humble peasant smitten with the wealthy and beautiful landowner Adina.  She, though, is more taken with the macho Sergeant Belcore.  In desperation, Nemorino buys a love potion (actually just some cheap wine) from the traveling quack Dr. Dulcamara.  Complications, as they say, ensue.

Two and one-half hours and much singing later, all ends happily for everyone—including Dr. Dulcamara who, as the curtain descends, is still fleecing the suckers. 

The opera proved to be a huge hit for Donizetti and is still, according to the Operabase on-line database, one of his most popular works, outpacing even his big tragic hit, "Lucia di Lammermoor."  That's partly because, as the late British opera scholar Julian Budden has written, "Donizetti created a pastoral comedy that fulfills the Romantic ideals of its day" and partly because the story of the gullible rube being taken in by the sharp con artist was as much of a comic gold mine nearly two centuries ago as it is now.

Photo: Ken Howard

Even so, the opera's immediate success was a bit of a surprise.  Donizetti—who had a reputation for being able to crank out operas under a deadline—had to brew his "Elixir" in just over a month in April of 1832 when a previously contracted work for Milan's Teatro all Cannobiana failed to materialize.  "On May 12," writes Francis Rizzo in the OTSL program, "despite inadequate rehearsal and a mediocre cast, The Elixir of Love had a triumphant opening."  Few people were more surprised than the composer.

Donizetti's opera was originally set in a small Basque village at the end of the 18th century—that is, in a somewhat exotic rural setting in the not-too-distant past.  The OTSL production moves the action to "a small American town in 1914," which would seem to be a reasonable parallel for a modern urban audience.  Besides, as director James Robinson points out in his production notes, both the setting and the basic plot elements are not dissimilar from those of a classic American musical theatre piece: Meredith Willson's 1957 hit "The Music Man." 

Classic Americana is the source of the production's visual elements as well.  "The works of Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton provided a delightful inspiration" for the look of the production, writes Mr. Robinson, "and quickly our rural Italian landscape became Anytown, U.S.A—on the eve of World War I."

The essentials: "The Elixir of Love" opens on Saturday, May 31, at 8 PM and runs in rotating repertory with the other season opera through June 25th.  For the full festival experience, come early and have a picnic supper on the lawn or under the refreshment tent. You can bring your own food or purchase a gourmet supper in advance from Ces and Judy’s. Drinks are available on site as well, or you can bring your own. For more information: experienceopera.org or 314-961-0644.