L’elisir d’amore

The lights dimmed and the orchestra tuned their instruments and I instinctively knew, in the words of Michael Scott, “Something exciting is happening.” I had never been to an opera prior to this. My preconceived notions of operas had always been of rotund singers in vibrant outfits holding notes long enough to crack glass. My uneducated paradigm quickly crumbled when the stage lit and Nemorino stepped to the forefront of the stage.

One thing I immediately noticed was the background set. Initially, I believed it to be two-dimensional, perhaps because my experience with the theater was generally limited to high school performances, so it was amazing when the actors started walking longitudinally through the stage. This depth to the stage really helped to emphasize the things going on the background with the extras and the chorus, while still keeping the main characters as the points of focus.

The actual music of the opera had me enraptured. The orchestra sounded great and the acoustics of the hall made it so that you could hear even the slightest nuances in their playing (I always liked hearing the creaking from the fingerboards of string instruments because it adds a natural element to the playing).  I often found myself leaning in closer to see what was going on in the orchestra pit, much to the dismay of the person sitting in front of me. The orchestral accompaniments to the arias were pleasant and the vocalists weren’t overpowered by the instruments and vice versa.

Then the second half began. And excuse my vernacular, but the second act was dope. The first aria of Act II was a duet with Adina and Dulcamara, the quack doctor. The highlight of Act II, however, came afterwards and was Nemorino’s solo Una Furtiva Lagrimal. Nemorino’s grief and joy from his love for Adina are imbued into this aria, which gracefully picks up in intensity. Una Furtiva Lagrimal is the climatic resolution to our protagonist’s plights, as he finally has receives the love of the girl whom he has been chasing for so long. Though the opera still had its concluding scene to get to, a ripple of applause sounded after the actor’s solo as the audience and Nemorino alike rejoiced at our hero’s happy ending.