L'Elisir d'Amore, Metropolitan Opera HD Live, Oct. 13 2012

Somebody at the Met loves Donizetti—not that there’s anything wrong with that. HD Live has presented at least one Donizetti each year since 2008 (Don Pasquale, Daughter of the Regiment, Anna Bolena, and two Lucia di Lammermoors), with Maria Stuarda scheduled for Jan. 19 2013. For 2012, it’s  L'Elisir d'Amore. Can we expect Roberto Devereux, the third of the “three queens,” before too long?

We saw a new production by Bartlett Sher. During the overture, Nemorino wandered out in front of the curtain and finally knelt beside a bench to write something in a little booklet. Was it a check? An entry in his pocket calendar? Even with HD closeup, I couldn’t tell. Either way, I didn’t get it when Adina later pocketed (or bodiced) it. Nothing more was seen of it.

In Act 1 Scene 1, we saw a Tuscan countryside in the background, gentle hills in the background with a couple of villages atop the hills. In the foreground were obviously cardboard cutouts of large trees and stalks of grain, and a small table at which Adina sat and read her book about Tristan. After a “curtain down” pause, Scene 2 was a plaza in such a Tuscan village, with a large church looming in the back and smaller buildings left and right. Dr. Dulcamara arrived, as is typical, in a large covered cart on four wheels, from which he emerged to deliver his “Udite, i rustici.”

Act 2 sure looked like Act 1 of the Met’s production of La Fanciulla del West, set inside a large wooden barn with a balcony area to the left; an onstage band performed from the balcony at the beginning. In front was a long table at which the principals of the wedding party sat. An intermission feature described the real food, chicken and spaghetti with a bit of oil, that the singers actually ate on stage. Before Gianetta and her friends appeared to describe Nemorino’s newly-inherited wealth, chorus members had taken off the tables and chairs, and the rear wall of the barn had been removed to one side. By the time of “Una furtiva lagrima” the balcony portion had also been slid offstage, leaving just the background painting of the Tuscan countryside and the stalks of grain.

Our cast:
Adina: Anna Netrebko
Nemorino: Matthew Polenzani
Belcore: Mariusz Kwiecien
Doctor Dulcamara: Ambrogio Maestri
Conductor: Maurizio Benini
Production: Bartlett Sher
Set Designer: Michael Yeargan



What a cast! Ambrogio Maestri was not a name I knew, but I could certainly stand to hear him again; he projected a wonderfully sonorous bass voice. Mariusz Kwiecien impressed with his singing and his lively acting. I’ve heard rumors that Boito’s Mefistofele is coming to San Francisco in the near future, and I’ve been wondering who would sing Mefistofele in such a production with anywhere near the impact that Samuel Ramey had in 1989. If the role is not too low for Kwiecien, he has my vote.  Matthew Polenzani sang well enough for most of the opera, then he uncorked a fabulous “Una furtiva lagrima” that was applauded at such length that he seemed to have trouble staying in character. And Anna Netrebko was her usual superb self. A solid beta.