Those following this month’s video streams of San Francisco Opera (SFO) performances through its Opera is ON service know that the offerings have been dramatically intense. Fortunately, the planners seem to have acknowledged that any frustrations arising from the limited approaches to celebrating Thanksgiving this year should be remedied through a vigorous dose of comic relief. Thus, this weekend’s offering bids farewell to November with Gaetano Donizetti’s comedy L’elisir d’amore (the elixir of love). The production captured on video by Frank Zamacona and his team was given eight performances between October 29, 2008 and the following November 26. Given the delightful impact of this opera, it is a pity that this round of performances was the last time the War Memorial Opera House hosted this particular opera.
Ramón Vargas and Inva Mula in the first act of L’elisir d’amore (from the SFO Web page for this opera)
The production was one of the most successful exercises of revisionism that I have ever experienced. The setting of the original libretto was in the Basque region, but Director James Robinson relocated it in both space and time. His staging was set in Napa Valley; and in the final scene all the soldiers that figure in the plot are confronted with the news of the outbreak of World War I. The protagonist of the opera is Nemorino, such by tenor Ramón Vargas, who is seriously smitten with Adina, sung by soprano Inva Mula, making her SFO debut (and her only SFO appearance to date). Adina is very much an independent woman, more interested in reading than in romance, while Nemorino sells ice cream from his truck. She gets her reading matter from the town librarian Giannetta, sung by soprano and Adler Fellow Ji Young Yang. However independent Adina may be, she is found irresistible by the army sergeant Belcore, sung by baritone Giorgio Caoduro, also making his SFO debut. The only other solo role is that of the huckster Dr Dulcamara, sung by bass Alessandro Corbelli, another SFO debut.
Nemorino appeals to Dulcamara for medicine that will make Adina fall in love with him. Very much a follower of P. T. Barnum, Dulcamara knows that a sucker is born every minute and that Nemorino is clearly one of them. So it is that Nemorino gets his “elixir of love.” In spite of the fact that it is little more than wine that has aged way beyond its time, he manages to win Adina by the end of the opera through the sorts of bizarre coincidences that provide the spirit and flesh of comic opera.
If the plot is ultimately predictable, Robinson’s staging keeps things moving in such a way that the high spirits never flag. However, it is the combined vocal work of both Vargas and Mula that really steal the show. Both of them understand that being expressive is not necessarily a matter of belting out the score at the top of your lungs. Both of them had a solid command of soft dynamics, presenting their respective characters as genuine flesh-and-blood individuals, rather than commedia dell’arte stereotypes. This provided conductor Bruno Campanella with the ability to set the pace of the music in such a way that the flow of the narrative is neither prolonged nor abridged. This allowed for a smooth flow interrupted only by the inevitable audience outburst of approval for Vargas’ interpretation of “Una furtiva lagrima” (a furtive tear). This is the turning point of the narrative, so having a bit of time for the audience to catch its breath is definitely in order!
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