Donizetti created his ‘Elixir of Love’ in 1832, allegedly in two weeks. It combines pretty music and a lightweight plot.
Photo © Richard Hubert Smith
In the same popular vein, director Martin Constantine took his cue from photographs of faded seaside resorts. So the curtain opened to reveal a dilapidated cinema opposite a fish’n’chip van; and the action had an ‘end of the pier show’ feel about it too.
The ensemble (eight singers, hardly enough to count as a chorus) were kept very active with singing mostly jolly choruses and performing well-drilled acting business.
This, and Amanda Holden’s witty translation, conjured up a world not unlike that of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Soprano Natasha Page coped well with the wide vocal range of the heartless, flighty Adina, while Tamsanqa Tylor Lamani deployed a steely, Italianate tenor voice as the infatuated chump Nemorino. Timothy Nelson as his rival, Sergeant Belcore, didn’t always match his physical bluster with vocal weight.
Emyr Wyn Jones played the larger-than-life quack Dulcamara, purveyor of the eponymous elixir. He performed with engaging ebullience and evident relish.
There were musical moments to treasure: the female chorus with Gianetta, the lovers’ final duet and of course Nemorino’s show-stopper aria in Act 2.
There were a few moments where singers parted company momentarily with the orchestra, but on the whole conductor Alice Farnham maintained a good pace.
Visual delights abounded, with the world of Donald McGill’s saucy postcards never far away.
A near-capacity audience enjoyed the gags and the lovers’ touching music alike.
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Reviewer: Niall Hoskin
