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A Hyperrealistic Setting
ROBERT HUGILL has some reservations
about Jonathan Miller's 'L'elisir d'amore'
It would seem almost inevitable that modern producers move the setting of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore to something other than the Italian pastoral setting of the original. In fact the plot works well in a variety of small town settings, but the most successful productions that I have seen all have kept the location in Italy, usually in the 1950s. For their new production of the opera (seen Friday 12 February 2010), English National Opera has chosen to mount Jonathan Miller's New York City Opera production. This production seems to have been well travelled as the sets are credited to the Royal Swedish Opera. I was rather surprised that ENO's previous new production was dated 1998, so I suppose we must accept the necessity for replacing it...
Copyright © 14 February 2010
Robert Hugill,
London UK
There are further performances of English National Opera's The Elixir of Love at the London Coliseum on Friday 19, Wednesday 24 and Saturday 27 February, and Wednesday 3, Friday 5, Thursday 11, Tuesday 16 and Tuesday 23 March 2010. Full details at www.eno.org, or +44 (0)871 911 0200. |
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