Charm bottled: L'elisir d'amore at the ROH
L'elisir d'amore
The Royal Opera
Royal Opera House
Balcony standing D32, £13
6 June 2017
ROH page
When done right Elisir is charm in a bottle and this revival ticks all the boxes. Probably the most important box is casting, and this young cast, with a surprising choice for Dulcamara, floated my boat very satisfyingly.
Liparit Avetisyan as Nemorino has a beautiful, if currently quite soft, sound and is armed with exquisite portamento. He is also a nifty mover and made charmingly off-the-cuff work of the extensive pratfalling called for in this production.
Pretty Yende as Adina is worth the raves: her voice is shimmering loveliness in all the places it needs to be, and she similarly to Avetisyan looks comfortable and relaxed on stage. Currently her coloratura accuracy is not quite spot on but I'm confident that, like with Avetisyan's loudness, this will improve.
Alex Esposito is the first slender Dulcamara I've seen and he makes a definite decision to eschew all avuncularity, with interesting results. One effect is that his flirtation with Adina becomes more than a touch creepy, which I'm in two minds about. Either way, his singing, as with his ROH performances of Leporello, is perfectly pitched, making light work of the buffo and sonorous work of the legato, delivered always with satisfying tone and excellent diction.
I think Belcore must be a beast to sing as I hear people struggle with it more often than succeed. Paolo Bortogna's voice didn't sound too happy in his first aria but was much more enticing when the part moved more into buffo territory. In the pit Bertrand de Billy seems more suited to this repertory than he did in Don Carlo and he kept a pretty firm hand on proceedings, if, to my taste, again rather over-inclined to steadiness.
Even seeing this production for the umpteenth time I have a lot of affection for it: the hay stack is a striking opening set and all subsequent sets are tastefully done; the setting and lighting suits the music and the story is efficiently told (not that it's too hard to make this one obscure (famous last words…)). I could do with a little less vaudeville from the chorus (because, let's face it, it's not really the RO Chorus's strong point), but then I guess without it the whole show would have to change.
All in all this is a solid revival of a solid production, elevated by excellent casting.
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