I hate Valentine’s Day.
February 14th can be a cruel spotlight when you’re single. This year is better than most finding me on tour through an amazing Michelangelo exhibit at the Met with my friend Chaltin. There is a sculpture of Cupid here made by the maestro when he was 16. Clearly the same god of love who has been working for me these past few years; broken arm and lost quiver.
Me and Chaltin are still just friends at the moment, but one of us has got an arrow stuck in them but who seduces who is still highly contested, it is she. This being our first opera together and called the The Elixir of Love and performed the week of valentines day is for me the beginning of an idea that there might be more than friendship here.
We have incredible orchestra seats thanks to the Met’s rush ticket program. $25
The evening is full of laughter. Pretty Yende is one of our favorite sopranos not just for her vocal range and coloratura, but her magnetism on stage. We absolutely adore her. The evening is not without its hiccups though and the tenor playing Dulcamara looks extra sweaty during his first aria and becomes ill not to return. If you read about my trip to Verona, Italy you’ll remember my observation that you can’t throw a gelato there without hitting a tenor. Thankfully the Met abides for keeping extra tenors on hand too and there is an accomplished understudy in waiting. To my ear both are great singers and both hilarious.
This was a magical evening for sure with good company and a high quality performance all around. Looking back after 30 operas, if I could go back in time and relive one of them, this would be one of the ones I choose.
So what’s L’elisir d’ amore all about? ‘Nice guy’ Nemorino is attracted to local girl Adina. All he needs to win her heart is a little more confidence because she too has already been struck by Cupid. After hearing Adina sing a song about Tristan and Isolde‘s love potion a Dr. Dulcamara arrives in town and guess what, he just happens to have just such a potion. To raise the stakes, a fun and cocky soldier named Belcore full of confidence to spare also comes to town and proposes to Adina. A now desperate Nemorino takes Dulcamara’s potion with the hope that he’ll win Adina’s heart. Is Dulcamara right, will his potion help win it and in the process make him ‘rich too!?’
Notes on the production
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Composer………………………….. Gaetano Donizetti
Adina……………………………………. Pretty Yende
Nemorino……………………………. Matthew Polenzani
Belcore……………………………..… Davide Luciano
Dulcamara……………………….….. Ildebrando D’Arcangelo
Dulcamara act 2,3…………….….. unkown for entry
Conductor………………………..…. Domingo Hindoyan
The Metropolitan Opera
2/10/2018