L' Elisir d' Amore

Last night I had a blast watching "L' Elisir d' Amore" on DVD.

It is an opera I have discovered roughly a decade ago when I was in a sudden thrill of discovering classical music - for someone raised in a working-class family with no connections to art in any form, this was a big deal as I had nobody to point me in any direction and simply enjoyed music with open heart and ears listening to what moved me. For a very long time I had a mental note at the back of my head that this is something to buy eventually and recently, on the spur of the moment I bought this DVD with the same cast like on CD recording I heard years ago - this is very important as the artists heard first usually works the best.

Donizetti's opera is very cute and sweet - it has a very simple, comical plot about country bumpkin falling in love with narcissistic beauty who plays with his affections just to admit to herself she really loves him after she finds out poor guy has sold himself to the army in order to get the money for a magical love potion to win her heart. Because opera is an art form built around the understanding that we know everything is artificial and mannered, I didn't have problems watching visibly old and overweight Pavarotti in a role of a young country boy - he is only a passable actor and most of the time depends on "italian shtick" of occasional grimace and gesture but the moment he opens his mouth the sun burst trough,really beautiful voice. As the audience is completely on his side, it's really a feat that Kathleen Battle firmly stands on her ground next to him and everything about her is sparkling - the voice thrills in amazing coloratura, her acting is perfect and she has a beauty to eclipse the whole stage. Two supporting characters are very entertaining in their comical roles of sergeant (Juan Ponts) and charlatan (Enzo Dara), both very much loved by audience.

As for visual pleasure to watch this, what a pleasure it was - the performance was filmed live in "Metropolitan Opera" with famed James Levine as conductor, scenery was  fairy-tale and magical (just the way I like it, I strongly dislike experiments when operas are set in experimental modern-day surroundings) and audience was clearly overjoyed - and me,in front of TV actually. Since I treated myself with opera night, I was sipping some red wine, clicking fingers along to the music, laughing and applauding (surprised that I still recognize the music), at the very end when all the artists took a bow on a scene I wondered how could they ever go home and sleep afterwards because I was buzzing myself with adrenaline just watching them and they actually lived these roles on a stage.

What a wonderful, feel-good opera. I really love this. Now definitely need to buy CD with the same cast.