Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore

Donizetti’s heartwarming comedy stars some of today’s most celebrated bel canto singers as the spunky landowner and the hapless peasant in search of love. Radiant sopranos Golda Schultz and Aleksandra Kurzak alternate as Adina, trading barbs and embraces with tenors Javier Camarena and Xabier Anduaga, in his Met debut, as Nemorino. Italian maestro Michele Gamba also makes his company debut conducting Bartlett Sher’s madcap staging, which features baritones Davide Luciano and Joshua Hopkins as the swaggering Sgt. Belcore and baritone Ambrogio Maestri and bass-baritone Alex Esposito as the lovable huckster Dr. Dulcamara.

World premiere: Teatro Cannobiana, Milan, 1832. L’Elisir d’Amore has been among the most consistently popular operatic comedies for almost two centuries. The story deftly combines comic archetypes with a degree of genuine character development rare in works of this type. Its ending is as much a foregone conclusion as it would be in a romantic comedy film today—the joy is in the journey, and Donizetti created one of his most instantly appealing scores for this ride.