There’s one quartet in The Elixir of Love , and it comes at the opera’s most critical moment, late in Act II. The village girls have just heard that Nemorino has inherited a fortune, and they crowd around the lad. He credits their attention to having consumed two bottles of Dulcamara’s supposed elixir, which is nothing more than cheap red wine.
The sight causes Adina to finally realize that she genuinely loves Nemorino, while Dulcamara is just as surprised as Nemorino by his phony love potion’s effectiveness. In honor of the quartet, here are four different perspectives on the opera and its Santa Fe production, from its stage director, its first Nemorino, a psychiatrist who explores the psychological issues underlying operas, and the two myths that fuel the plot. Stephen Lawless almost said no when incoming general director Charles MacKay invited him to stage The Elixir of Love here in 2009.
“I had directed it already, a production set in the 19th-century that originated at Los Angeles Opera and was revived multiple times,” he says. “I wasn’t sure I had another production of it in me, until my designer Ashley Martin-Davis and I hit on the idea of setting it at the end of World War II.” The Elixir of Love 8:30 p.
m. Saturday, July 27, 8 p.m.
Wednesday, July 31, and August 9, 14, and 22 Santa Fe Opera 301 Opera Drive $53-$421 (prices include handling fees and are subject to change) 505-986-5900; santafeopera.org Having settled on their production’s time and place, Lawless and Martin-Davis drew visual inspiration from the Italian neorealist cinema movement, which began in the waning days of the war. Films such as Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945) were shot on location, exploring the social pressures of daily life among the poor and working classes, often with nonprofessional actors.
Santa Fe Opera patrons were glad Lawless was able to say yes to MacKay’s offer, since the concept, which turned Nemorino into an auto mechanic and Belcore into an American army officer leading the Italian village’s liberation, received widespread critical acclaim. Just one example of many: The Denver Post’s Kyle MacMillan wrote that the production “found the heart and soul of this ever-popular comic love story, delivering a smart, fast-paced staging with one clever touch after another.” Lawless has staged the production twice since its Santa Fe debut, in Philadelphia and Seattle, which he sees as a plus: “I believe it’s gotten deeper over time with the second and third looks at it.
” And he resolutely resists the negative connotations of the opera-industry term “revival” for such restagings. “I like to think I’ve never directed a revival in my life,” Lawless says, “because each new cast always brings so much to it.” The director’s enthusiasm for his “absolutely inspirational” cast here is palpable in what he says and how he says it.
The Adina, soprano Yaritza Véliz has “the most beautiful voice I’ve ever heard in the role,” with baritone Luke Sutliff having “just the right amount of bluster as Belcore,” tenor Jonah Hoskins is “simply the finest all-round Nemorino” in the director’s many stagings of the opera, and baritone Alfredo Daza is “the best Dulcamara I’ve ever had.” He also admires the professionalism of the Giannetta, apprentice Cadie J. Bryan, and the skill and energy of the chorus.
Lawless actually played two roles in the 2009 production, a credited one as its stage director and an uncredited one as a backstage Dulcamara. He encouraged two cast members who were clearly in love to get married, “and they’re still together and very happy,” he says, beaming. No word yet on whether he’s spotted any couples ripe for matrimony this year.
Meanwhile, Lawless is enjoying his fifth visit to Santa Fe, following Faust (2011), Carmen (2014), and Roméo et Juliette (2016). “I arrived here after a month at my place in Scotland, where it rained every day,” he tells Pasatiempo in a recent interview. “Last night was my first night of really good sleep.
I got up at 5 and went out just as the sun was rising and the smell of the pines was incredible.” Two myths are at work in The Elixir of Love , one overt and the other covert. The overt myth is that of Tristan and Isolde and the potion that induces their love-death.
Felice Romani parodied the myth in his libretto for Donizetti’s opera; the magic of Romani’s potion is actually intoxication from Dulcamara’s phony love potion. The original tale, which developed at some point before the 12th century, was a love-romance based on a Celtic legend. Early versions of it were grim, violent works with some coarsely humorous or farcical scenes.
More artistically refined versions started to appear around 1170. A love potion not only figures in the opera’s plot; Adina reads the myth of Tristan and Isolde to the villagers in the opera’s first scene. She laughs at what she’s reading, given her outlook on love, but she also wishes she could find some for herself.
“Elixir of so perfect, so rare a quality, I wish I knew the recipe, I wish I knew who makes you!” she sings. During the 19th century, versions of the Tristan myth were very popular in Italy, both in published form and as cantari , poems that were recited in town squares and other public venues. Adina reading to her farm workers comes right out of the cantari tradition.
The covert myth is that of Cinderella, specifically its rare variants with a male hero. Some of the early versions of the basic tale are truly shocking, involving either incestuous desires on the part of the father toward the daughter after the death of the mother or all-in-the-family murders and cannibalism. Apart from Walt Disney and his paid agents, those most responsible for our contemporary views of Cinderella are Charles Perreault, in his 17th-century version of the tale, and his 19th-century German counterparts, the Brothers Grimm.
In terms of classic fairy tales, one of the best-known male Cinderella stories is Puss in Boots . In it, the youngest son of a miller gets only a cat as an inheritance, while his older brothers get the mill and the mules to operate it. However, the cat turns out to have magic powers and the story ends with the youngest brother marrying a princess.
The best-known contemporary version of the tale is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone , the first installment in J.K. Rowling’s series.
In it, the title character has been forced to live underneath the stairs at his aunt’s and uncle’s house for 10 years, during which he is treated cruelly by them and their son, the odious Dudley Dursley. Salvation finally arrives not via a slipper but an invitation to enroll at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Psychiatrist Don Fineberg has led Opera and Psychology seminars for the Santa Fe Opera for many years and more recently created a video series, Opera InSight , which offers 20-minute presentations on the same subjects.
) When it comes to The Elixir of Love , Fineberg sees a great deal of psychologically perceptive growth and character development in Adina and Nemorino. Adina starts out as a kinder, gentler version of Carmen, believing that love is something you just play with for fun. “She falls into a dynamic that’s humorous on the surface but actually reflects a profound truth,” he says.
“Carmen’s point of view is, ‘If you don’t want me, I want you, and if I want you, watch out.’ When Nemorino is waiting for the elixir to kick in and starts ignoring her, that activates her, so much so that she agrees to marry the obnoxious Belcore.” Fineberg sees Nemorino as a genuinely innocent young man who is incapable of manipulating others.
“He doesn’t ignore her as a manipulation; he genuinely believes he needs to wait,” he says. For Nemorino, the turning point is when he sees the “one furtive tear” that motivates his famous aria. It tells him that Adina loves him and, perhaps more importantly, that he is a person worthy of love, no matter their distance in social station.
From a psychological perspective, the most important development is that they start doing things based on each other’s needs. “When you truly care, a sign of loving the other person is wanting what’s best for them,” Fineberg says, “such as when Adina buys back his enlistment papers.” The real-life equivalent can be an important part of therapy.
“When you do couples work,” he says, “it’s often the thing you can tap into to help get them back on track, by starting to bring the relationship back into equilibrium.” His prognosis for Belcore isn’t as optimistic. Working with a true narcissist is “hard, very hard to do,” he says.
Part of the technique involves “accurate empathy,” the quality of opening yourself up to what the patient is feeling. “What you find underneath is this swirl of insecurities that give rise to that defensive grandiosity and arrogance,” he says. Still, change can be difficult to bring about.
“He comes in as Belcore,” Fineberg says, “and he leaves as Belcore.” The opera’s psychological acuteness even extends to a phenomenon confirmed by 20th-century science. “I just can’t believe this is on purpose,” Fineberg says, “but this is a very authentic portrayal of the active placebo effect.
” The well-known placebo effect means that about 1/3 of study participants who are given a sugar pill see improvements in their symptoms, versus two-thirds who receive an antidepressant. With an active placebo, in which recipients are correctly told their sugar pill leads to improvements — such as Nemorino with the elixir — the one-third rises to half. Maybe Dulcamara shouldn’t be quite as surprised that his elixir actually worked.
“I’m flabbergasted,” he says when he sees its effect. “Am I really the owner of a magic potion?” Fineberg’s prescription for attendees, especially those who aren’t familiar with The Elixir of Love , is simple. “Go and enjoy the opera.
Then think about it later, because it really is profound in what it can teach us about love and life.” Dimitri Pittas was one of three former Santa Fe apprentice singers in the company’s all-American cast, and he garnered universal acclaim for his performance. London’s Financial Times said, “Dimitri Pittas makes a bold and remarkably plausible bid to take his place among the great tenors who have assayed Nemorino.
” The New Mexican’s Craig Smith concurred, writing, “His tenor sparkled like the accompanying fireworks.” (The production opened on July Fourth.) “It’s probably the role I’ve performed most in my career to date, maybe tied with Rodolfo in La Bohème ,” Pittas says.
“Stephen Lawless is wonderful at getting you to bring out your best, and I’ve used so much from this production in all the other places I’ve sung it. I love how real the characters all come across. You don’t feel like you’re watching a cartoon, which is what a lot of productions seem like.
” “Donizetti can make you feel the earnestness of the characters through the music no matter whether it’s silly or sad or sentimental,” the tenor says when asked why The Elixir of Love has been such a perennial success. “A composer who can do that can make something timeless.” Pittas sees the role as unusually demanding from a technical standpoint in this production, because the vocalism required is combined with great physical demands.
“It involves being chased by Belcore, climbing this big billboard, standing on tables, running and singing, and singing while you’re driving a car,” he says. To do it all successfully, “you have to let go and live where the character lives. I learned that from this Elixir , and I will be forever grateful that I got to premiere this production.
” Pittas also acquired a unique memento related to the Santa Fe staging. The car Nemorino works on was custom-built and featured the immediately identifiable “bugeye” front end of an Austin-Healey Sprite. Pittas was so enamored of the production here that he bought an entire 1960 model Sprite, painted it red, christened it Adina , and secured a vanity license plate reading LOVELXR.
“I meet a lot of people who want to talk about how it was their first car,” the tenor says. “It’s a great icebreaker to talk about opera with someone who may not know much about it.” Pittas, Adina , and his two young sons even starred in a series of pandemic-era videos he created titled Opera Singers Driving Cars with Toddlers .
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