L'Elisir d'Amore, by Gaetano Donizetti

Live 4 times L'Elisir d'Amore 1988-09-29, 1998-05-21, 1999-05-15, 2001-10-21
Nemorino in 1988 was Kjell Magnus Sandve (Oslo), in 1998 Vincenzo La Scola (Zürich), in 1999 Ramon Vargas (Vienna), in 2001 Niels Harald Sødahl (Nordfjordeid, Norway).

So what lesson can we take from this opera? Maybe something can be learned from the who is who list.

Nemorino, a simple peasant
Adina, a wealthy landowner
Belcore, a sergeant
Dulcamara, an itinerant medicine man
Giannetta, Adina's friend

Nemorino is in love with Adina. As he listens to Adina reading about Tristan and Isolde, he wants an Elixir of Love to win Adina's heart, and he gets one from Dulcamara. But it isn't an Elixir, it is a bottle of Bordeaux wine. He gets intoxicated and wins Adina because as the news of the death of Nemorino's uncle (Nemorino is the heir, gets lots of money). The inheritance news, unknown to both Nemorino and Adina, makes a lot of women want Nemorino and that makes Adina realize that she loves him. LESSONS? Things aren't always as it seems...


Belcore thinks he is Paris, the most handsome man on earth, and that all women must love him. He is wrong. LESSON: Believing you are someone all should love does not make it so.


Dulcamara is smart enough to milk all he can out of any situation. LESSON: Be aware of advertisement that sound too good.


Adina thinks she can just go from man to man, promise but never give. But all the time it was Nemorino she really wanted. LESSON: No, in reality it is OK to be single (not in Opera, of course).

Poor Giannetta - Rich Adina won again.

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