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 p.