L'Elisir d'Amore - Metropolitan Opera

Gaetano Donizetti

L’Elisir d’Amore CONDUCTOR

Donato Renzetti

Opera in two acts Libretto by Felice Romani

PRODUCTION

John Copley SET & COSTUME DESIGNER

Beni Montresor

Saturday, March 31, 2012, 1:00–3:35 pm

Last time this season

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Gil Wechsler STAGE DIRECTOR

Stephen Pickover The production of L’Elisir d’Amore was made possible by a generous gift from the Annie Laurie Aitken Charitable Trust. Additional funding was received from The William T. Morris Foundation. GENERAL MANAGER

Peter Gelb MUSIC DIRECTOR

James Levine PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR

Fabio Luisi

The revival of this production was made possible by a gift from The NPD Group, Inc.

2011–12 Season

The 267th Metropolitan Opera performance of Gaetano Donizetti’s

This performance is being broadcast live over The Toll Brothers– Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network, sponsored by Toll Brothers, America’s luxury ® homebuilder , with generous long-term support from The Annenberg Foundation, the Vincent A. Stabile Endowment for Broadcast Media, and contributions from listeners worldwide. This performance is also being broadcast live on Metropolitan Opera Radio on SiriusXM channel 74.

L’Elisir d’Amore Conductor Donato Renzetti cast in order of vocal appearance

Giannetta Layla Claire * Nemorino Juan Diego Flórez Adina Diana Damrau Sergeant Belcore Mariusz Kwiecien ** Doctor Dulcamara Alessandro Corbelli recitative accompanist

Joshua Greene

Saturday, March 31, 2012, 1:00–3:35 pm

Cory Weaver/Metropolitan Opera

Diana Damrau as Adina and Juan Diego Flórez as Nemorino in a scene from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

Chorus Master Donald Palumbo Musical Preparation Jane Klaviter, J. David Jackson, Joshua Greene, and Jonathan Kelly Assistant Stage Director Daniel Rigazzi Stage Band Conductor Gregory Buchalter Italian Coach Gildo Di Nunzio Prompter Jane Klaviter Met Titles Cori Ellison Assistant to Mr. Montresor Franco Gianbenini Scenery, properties, and electrical props constructed and painted in Metropolitan Opera Shops Costumes executed by Metropolitan Opera Costume Department Wigs executed by Metropolitan Opera Wig Department

Yamaha is the official piano of the Metropolitan Opera.

This performance is made possible in part by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts.

Latecomers will not be admitted during the performance.

Before the performance begins, please switch off cell phones and other electronic devices.

* Member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program ** Graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program

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Met Titles To activate, press the red button to the right of the screen in front of your seat and follow the instructions provided. To turn off the display, press the red button once again. If you have questions please ask an usher at intermission.

Synopsis Act I

A small Italian village in the 19th century. While peasants rest from work, Nemorino, a young villager, watches the beautiful farm owner Adina read a book. He loves her but feels she is beyond his reach. The peasants ask Adina what her book is about, and she tells them the story of how Tristan won the heart of Isolde by drinking a magic love potion. A drum roll announces the arrival of Sergeant Belcore and his men. He promptly introduces himself to Adina and asks her to marry him. Adina declares that she is in no hurry to make up her mind but promises to think over the offer. Left alone with Nemorino, Adina tells him that his time would be better spent looking after his sick uncle than hoping to win her love. Even though he is kind and modest, she says she feels nothing for him. Dulcamara, a traveling quack and charlatan, arrives in the village, advertising a potion capable of curing anything. When the doctor has finished his routine, Nemorino shyly asks if he sells the elixir of love described in Adina’s book. Dulcamara claims he does and pulls out a bottle of Bordeaux. Though it costs him his last cent, Nemorino buys it and immediately drinks it; Dulcamara explains that he has to wait until the next day for results (by which time Dulcamara will be gone). When Adina appears, Nemorino begins to feel the effect of the “potion.” Certain he will be irresistible to her the next day, he feigns indifference. To punish him, Adina flirts with Belcore. The sergeant has been informed that he must return to his garrison, and Adina agrees to marry him at once. Shocked, Nemorino begs her to wait one more day, but she ignores him and invites the entire village to her wedding. Nemorino desperately calls for the doctor’s help.

Intermission Act II

(AT APPROXIMATELY 2:10 PM)

At the pre-wedding feast Adina and Dulcamara entertain the guests with a barcarole. Adina wonders why Nemorino is not present. She doesn’t want to sign the marriage contract until he appears. Meanwhile, Nemorino asks Dulcamara for another bottle of the elixir. Since he doesn’t have any money, the doctor agrees to wait at the inn for an hour so Nemorino can borrow the cash from someone. Belcore is annoyed that Adina has postponed the wedding. When Nemorino tells him that he needs money right away, the sergeant persuades him to join the army to receive a volunteer bonus of 20 scudi. Having bought more wine, Nemorino returns to find himself besieged by a group of girls. Unaware of the news that his uncle has died and left him a fortune, he believes the elixir is finally taking effect. Adina enters, feeling responsible for Nemorino’s enlistment, but when she sees him with the other girls, she reacts jealously. Nemorino and

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the girls leave, and Dulcamara boasts to Adina about the power of his elixir, offering to sell her some as well. She replies that she will win Nemorino back on her own terms. Nemorino, having noticed a tear on Adina’s cheek when she saw him with the girls, feels sure that she cares for him. When she returns to tell him that she has bought back his enlistment papers, he again feigns indifference. Finally, she confesses she loves him. Belcore appears to find the two arm in arm but takes the situation with good humor, declaring that thousands of women await him elsewhere. Dulcamara reveals to the crowd the news of Nemorino’s inheritance and brags about how his miraculous potion can make people fall in love and even turn poor peasants into millionaires.

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In Focus Gaetano Donizetti

L’Elisir d’Amore Premiere: Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan, 1832 Since its premiere more than a century and a half ago, L’Elisir d’Amore has been among the most consistently popular operatic comedies. The story deftly combines comic archetypes with a degree of genuine character development rare in works of this type. Considering the genre, the story’s 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. The music of L’Elisir represents the best of the bel canto tradition that reigned in Italian opera in the early 19th century, from funny patter songs to rich ensembles to wrenching melody like the famous tenor aria “Una furtiva lagrima.”

The Creators Bergamo-born Gaetano Donizetti (1797–1848) wrote more than 60 operas, plus orchestral and chamber music, in a career abbreviated by mental illness and premature death. Many of his works disappeared from public view after his death. Critical and popular opinion of his huge opus has grown considerably over the past 50 years beyond the ever-popular Lucia di Lammermoor and the comic gems L’Elisir d’Amore and Don Pasquale. Felice Romani (1788–1865) was the official librettist of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. Romani also collaborated with Donizetti on his tragic masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor and provided Vincenzo Bellini with all but two of his librettos. For L’Elisir, Romani adapted an earlier French libretto by Eugène Scribe (1791–1861), Le Philtre, originally set by the composer Daniel Auber (1782–1871). Scribe was a prolific dramatist whose work was influential in the development of grand opera. He provided librettos for such composers as Rossini, Meyerbeer, and Verdi.

The Setting The opera is set in a small village in rural Italy. Some early editions indicate a location in Basque country. The important fact is that it’s a place where everyone knows everyone, and where passing soldiers and traveling salesmen provide the main form of public entertainment.

The Music What separates L’Elisir d’Amore from dozens of charming comedies composed around the same time is not only the superiority of its hit numbers, but the overall consistency of its music. The bass’s entrance aria, the comic patter song 36

“Udite, udite, o rustici,” is funny, difficult, and establishes the doctor as slimy but ultimately harmless and rather likeable. This persona is explored further in his Act II duet with Adina, where he parodies a rich old Venetian man becoming foolish over a pretty young girl. The framework of this duet is a barcarolle, a sailing song typical for Venice and usually set in 6/8 time. Changing the meter to 2/2 time accentuates the rickety old man’s clumsiness in his attempts at gallantry. This sort of sly humor is a hallmark of the score, which maintains a prominent and insightful connection between the music and the unfolding romance. The tenor’s Act I solo “Adina, credimi” gives us a mere glimpse of the man he will become later in the opera. When this finally begins to happen in Act II’s showstopping aria “Una furtiva lagrima,” it is much more than an excuse for a gorgeous melody: the aria’s variations between major and minor keys in the climaxes are one of opera’s savviest depictions of dawning consciousness, as the hero simultaneously accepts the possibility of love and his own power of self-assertion.

L’Elisir d’Amore at the Met The 1904 Met premiere of L’Elisir d’Amore starred Marcella Sembrich and Enrico Caruso, whose interpretation of the role of Nemorino became legendary. He sang it 32 times at the Met. Beniamino Gigli appeared as Nemorino in 11 performances from 1930 to 1932, and Ferruccio Tagliavini starred in 15 performances from 1948 to 1962. A popular new production by Nathaniel Merrill, designed by Robert O’Hearn, premiered in 1960 with Fausto Cleva conducting Elisabeth Söderström and Dino Formichini. Other tenors who have appeared in the opera include Nicolai Gedda (11 performances from 1961 to 1968), Alfredo Kraus (7 performances, 1968 and 1991), Roberto Alagna (9 performances, 1996–99), and especially Luciano Pavarotti, who sang Nemorino 49 times between 1973 and 1998. Sarah Caldwell conducted five performances of L’Elisir in 1978, with Judith Blegen as Adina and Pavarotti and José Carreras sharing the role of Nemorino. Pavarotti starred in the 1991 premiere of the current production opposite Kathleen Battle, who appeared as Adina 30 times between 1988 and 1993. Other sopranos who have starred in the opera include Bidú Sayão (18 performances, 1941–50), Roberta Peters (16 performances, 1961–73), Renata Scotto (8 performances, 1965–72), and Ruth Ann Swenson (26 performances, 1988–2006). Among the many star basses who have sung the role of Dr. Dulcamara are Ezio Pinza (14 appearances, 1930–33), Fernando Corena (53 performances, 1960–78), and Paul Plishka (47 performances, 1989–99).

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COVENT GARDEN PRODUCTION PHOTO: BILL COOPER

2011–12 season

Anna Netrebko in Manon

e Metropolitan Opera is pleased to salute Yves Saint Laurent in recognition of its generous support during the 2011–12 season.

Program Note

“C

aro elisir!” sings Nemorino when he buys what he takes to be a love potion, believing it will win him Adina’s undying affection. These words describe equally well the public’s response to Donizetti’s rustic comedy. This very human opera is a tissue of paradoxes. The elixir is a sham—a bottle of Bordeaux—yet it, or at least Nemorino’s trust in it, finally produces the desired result. The “doctor” who peddles it along with his other nostrums and specifics is a quack, yet so persuasive are his garrulous claims as set out in his entrance aria that not only the chorus but the audience as well find themselves succumbing to Coleridge’s dictum of “the willing suspension of disbelief.” And then this “doctor,” this fooler of the gullible, is not such a fool himself that he does not recognize that Adina’s charms possess a potency far beyond that of any of his patent medicines. For at the end Nemorino, this naïf who envies Adina her ability to read books, wins her heart not through any doctor ex machina, but by being steadfastly himself, revealing through his actions—inept as they sometimes seem—that he loves her deeply and sincerely. During Donizetti’s lifetime, L’Elisir d’Amore was the most frequently performed of all of his more than 60 operas, and indeed it can be said to be the earliest of his works never to have left the repertory. It came along at a crucial time in the composer’s career. Two months before L’Elisir’s premiere in May 1832, Donizetti’s first commission for Milan’s La Scala, Ugo, Conte di Parigi, had failed to win over the public. This failure was doubly unfortunate as it occurred in a triumphant season that had opened with the premiere of Norma by Bellini, whom the Milanese, after the double successes of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena and Bellini’s La Sonnambula the previous year, regarded as Donizetti’s chief rival. The relative failure of Ugo was caused by the local censors rendering the plot unintelligible. Indeed, their interference delayed the opening of Donizetti’s work until the season was nearly over. A further handicap came from the singers, the same ones who had worked wonders for Norma, because they were worn out after 32 performances of that strenuous work (along with other operas) in less than three months. The Milanese critics, though they took little pleasure in the plot of Ugo, did, however, praise Donizetti for his musical craftsmanship. Donizetti’s chance to vindicate himself came in the guise of the impresario Alessandro Lanari, who had leased the Teatro della Canobbiana for a spring season of opera buffa and had offered Donizetti a contract. Time was short, but a number of fortunate circumstances helped to overcome this obstacle. One member of Lanari’s company, the baritone Henri-Bernard Dabadie, had lately sung at the Paris Opera in Auber’s Le Philtre, and that plot, with some emendations and alterations suggested by Donizetti, formed the basis of L’Elisir. Here was a chance for Donizetti to prove his versatility with an opera buffa, a genre that Bellini never essayed. The composer realized that what was lacking in Eugène Scribe’s highly artificial libretto for Le Philtre was a note of sincerity. Among the additions Donizetti and his librettist, Felice Romani, made to the 39

Program Note

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original plot was the famous tenor aria “Una furtiva lagrima,” which significantly helped supply this missing ingredient. Romani was the same poet who had been so outraged by the censors’ crude treatment of his text for Ugo, Conte di Parigi that he had refused to put his name to it. The easily offended Romani was also ready to vindicate himself after the mauling that work had taken, and he was, frankly, relieved that there was nothing in this rustic plot to ruffle any censorial sensibilities. Indeed, the censors’ final approval of the text of L’Elisir was handed down after the dress rehearsal had been held. Although in the future Donizetti would find working with Romani, whom he admired as a poet at least, fraught with frustration, on this occasion their collaboration apparently went smoothly—so smoothly, in fact, that the whole project, from its inception to a wildly successful premiere, was completed in less than two months. L’Elisir first saw the footlights at the Teatro della Canobbiana on May 12, 1832, with the leading roles taken by Sabine Heinefetter (Adina), Giambattista Genero (Nemorino), the aforementioned Dabadie (Belcore), and Giuseppe Frezzolini (Dulcamara). One of its most influential later productions opened at La Scala on February 17, 1900, when, with Arturo Toscanini conducting, Enrico Caruso’s Nemorino—especially his singing of “Una furtiva lagrima”—created the sensation that would bring him first to Covent Garden and then to the Met. Caruso considered L’Elisir his good-luck piece, and he introduced his Nemorino during his first American season, in the work’s premiere at the Met on January 23, 1904. However, a performance on December 11, 1920 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in what was to have been the tenor’s 33rd appearance as Nemorino with the company, was not so lucky. It was halted at the end of Act I because Caruso was suffering from a hemorrhage in his throat. He was to sing only three more times with the company before his untimely death the following summer at the age of 48. —William Ashbrook

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2012 –13 Season

The Cast

Donato Renzetti conductor ( abruzzi, italy)

L’Elisir d’Amore at the Met, Simon Boccanegra in Bilbao, Pagliacci with St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, and La Bohème in Trieste. met appearances La Bohème (debut, 1989). career highlights He is music director of the Macerata Opera and principal conductor of the Orchestra Stabile di Bergamo, and conducts regularly at major opera houses in Italy including Florence’s Teatro Comunale, Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, Naples’s Teatro San Carlo, Venice’s La Fenice, and the Rome Opera. He was principal conductor of the Arena di Verona until 1995 and conducted Aida in both Verona and Luxor, Egypt. He has also been a guest conductor at festivals in Glyndebourne, Spoleto, Pesaro, and Parma, and with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Rome’s Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, and Dallas Symphony. this season

Diana Damrau soprano (günzburg , germany)

Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore at the Met, the three heroines in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Munich Festival, the title role of Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix in Barcelona, Philine in Thomas’s Mignon in Geneva, Gilda in Rigoletto in Zurich, and the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Vienna State Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin. met appearances Adèle in Le Comte Ory, Gilda, Marie in La Fille du Régiment, Pamina and the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (debut, 2005), Aithra in Die Ägyptische Helena, and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. career highlights Adele in Die Fledermaus, Rosina, Manon, and Zerbinetta with the Vienna State Opera, Marie in San Francisco, Zerbinetta with Dresden’s Semperoper, Konstanze at the Salzburg Festival and in Munich and Barcelona, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Gilda in Munich, the Queen of the Night in Salzburg and at Covent Garden, and Europa in Salieri’s Europa Riconosciuta for the 2004 reopening of La Scala. this season

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Alessandro Corbelli baritone (turin, italy)

Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore at the Met, the title role of Don Pasquale in Santiago and at Paris’s Thêátre des Champs-Élysées, the title role of Falstaff in Toulouse, and Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola with Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. met appearances The title role of Gianni Schicchi, Don Magnifico and Dandini (debut, 1997) in La Cenerentola, Sulpice in La Fille du Régiment, and Taddeo in L’Italiana in Algeri. career highlights Don Magnifico at Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the Glyndebourne Festival, Don Geronio in Il Turco in Italia with Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, Falstaff at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Sulpice at La Scala and Covent Garden, Gianni Schicchi at the Paris Opera and Glyndebourne Festival, Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Rome Opera, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and Taddeo at the Paris Opera, Dandini at La Scala, and Don Geronio and Don Pasquale at Covent Garden.

this season

Juan Diego Flórez tenor (lima , peru)

Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore at the Met, the Duke in Rigoletto in Zurich, and recitals and concerts in Kansas City, Paris, London, Berlin, Rome, and Vienna, among others. met appearances The title role of Le Comte Ory, Tonio in La Fille du Régiment, Elvino in La Sonnambula, Count Almaviva (debut, 2002) in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola, and Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri. career highlights Since making his operatic debut in 1996 in Matilde di Shabran at Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival, he has sung a repertoire of 32 operas and appears regularly at all the leading opera houses in the world, including Covent Garden, La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, Florence’s Teatro Comunale, Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, Naples’s Teatro San Carlo, Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza, San Francisco Opera, Paris’s Châtelet and Bastille Operas, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. this season

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The Cast

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Mariusz Kwiecien baritone (kraków, poland)

Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore and Don Giovanni at the Met; Rodrigo in Don Carlo at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera; Don Giovanni in Warsaw, Tokyo, and in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the title role of Szymanowski’s King Roger with the Santa Fe Opera; and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro in Kraków. met appearances Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Escamillo in Carmen, Kuligin in Kátˇ a Kabanová (debut, 1999), Silvio in Pagliacci, Haly in L’Italiana in Algeri, and Count Almaviva. career highlights Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera, Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, and Santa Fe Opera; Eugene Onegin with the Bavarian State Opera, Bolshoi Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and in Warsaw; Count Almaviva at Covent Garden, the Bavarian State Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, and in Chicago and Madrid; and King Roger with the Paris Opera and in Madrid. this season

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Milka Ternina as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, 1899

Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, 2011

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE METROPOLITAN OPERA ARCHIVES

PHOTO: KEN HOWARD/METROPOLITAN OPERA