Washington, October 18, 2011 – The In Series opened its 2011-2012 season in stunning fashion this weekend past with its new production of Love Potion #1, the opera formerly known as Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Élisir d’amore (The elixir of love). Now playing at the GALA Hispanic Theatre, this is, quite simply, one of the most delightful, tuneful, and amusing efforts this eclectic little company has put on stage in recent memory.
Opera buffs are well acquainted with Donizetti’s popular comic confection, in which an inept but sincere country bumpkin named Nemorino—having consistently failed to land the hand of the lovely, higher-class Adina—is conned by snake-oil salesman Dulcamera to buy a healthy dose of his patented love elixir. The object is to cause Adina to fall madly in love with Nemorino, since nothing else seems to work.
Popular girl Adina (Laura Choi Stuart) listens to Math whiz Nemorino (Pablo Henrich-Lobo). Evil Belcore (Alex Alburqueque) is not amused. (Photo credits: Ahmad Arbaboun.)
Of course, Dulcamera’s legendary love potion is really just a left-over jug of cheap red wine, which leads to any number of complications as our hapless hero tries to beat back his nefarious competitor, Belcore, and win Adina for himself.
In time-honored In Series tradition, Donizetti’s timeworn plot can’t just be left to stand on its own. No way. Time to bring on a sprightly, sparkling libretto update, courtesy of director Nick Olcott, fast-forwarding this opera to an American high school in the 1950s. Seems ridiculous, really. But unlike so many needless “updates” of the classics, this one actually works. Olcott translates Donizetti’s silliness to our own times with out skipping a beat and without eliminating any of the composer’s swell bel canto opportunities.
The silly, juvenile, go-along-with-the-crowd behavior of Donizetti’s country bumpkins translates almost seamlessly to a standard day on an American public high school campus somewhere in Columbia Heights. Here, the same kinds of pointless turf battles, bullying, teasing, and class structures somehow still persist as they did in Donizetti’s day, more or less.
Greaser-in-Chief Belcore (Alex Alburqueque) sees nerds, Dulcamera (Jarrod Lee) and Nemorino (Pablo Henrich-Lobo), wherever he looks.
In a largely English translation, the old libretto makes the jump in warp speed, resulting in a classic charmer clothed in almost contemporary jargon. The whole conceit works perfectly and unselfconsciously.
The opera’s cast is good to great, bringing Donizetti’s tunes and Olcott’s tuned-up script to hilarious life in GALA’s acoustically lively performance space. At the top of the list is soprano Laura Choi Stuart. Resplendent in her tight-fitting sweater and official, powder-blue poodle skirt, her Adina is at once cunning and haughty, the popular girl who finally meets her matches, more or less. She handles Donizetti’s trickiest passages with aplomb, and her diction is notably clear throughout.
Another standout was bass-baritone Jarrod Lee who sang the role of con-man Dulcamera, cast in this version as a high school chemistry nerd who gets lucky with his lab experiments. As a character actor, Lee is a delight, and as a vocalist, he’s outstanding, singing with authority and wit and boasting perhaps the best diction in the cast—crucial for carrying the plot forward as this is a show that doesn’t employ surtitles to help out with the dialogue.
The show’s male leads were not quite as strong this weekend. Baritone Alex Alburqueque is a strong and over-manly Belcore, a kind of successor to “Happy Days’” Fonzie who’s gone a bit too far off the tracks. But his instrument, while strong and clear, tends to waver at points, detracting at times from the overall alpha male impression he generally conveys.
Tenor Pablo Henrich-Lobo has some similar issues in projecting the character of the hapless Nemorino. Nemorino, of course, is not exactly a force to be reckoned with in this opera, so a genuinely robust approach to the role would never work in any case. But Henrich-Lobo still seems overly tentative at times, beyond that nerdiness that his character would seem to demand.
Nonetheless, all the singers handle the bulk of the work surprisingly well, and are particularly good in the many ensembles that highlight this opera.
The main cast is assisted as well by a chorus of “high-schoolers,” all of whom would have done any high school proud back in the day. Even though everybody is singing Donizetti (for the most part) in this production, the entire cast seems to be simultaneously channeling the spirit of the musical Grease, which makes this update even more effective.
Music for this production was (and is) provided by popular area pianist and George Washington University professor Frank Conlon who also conducts a fine string ensemble from his seat at the piano. The ensemble’s sound was crisp and professional this weekend, and kept the singers as well as the entire production on track and sounding professional in every way.
Nick Olcott’s direction was spare and thoughtful, keeping soloists almost always front and center, the better to focus their voices more directly into the audience from the stage apron. Donna Breslin’s minimalist costumes were spare but largely period authentic, and lighting and sets by Andrew Scharweth and Elizabeth Jenkins McFadden were colorful, functional, and got the job done.
Running at the GALA through October 29, the In Series’ update of L’Élisir d’amore is a delightful fall charmer, an imaginatively updated old favorite that brings classic opera into the local neighborhood with surprising skill and talent at bargain basement prices. It’s a lighthearted night out for lovers of Donizetti. And it’s the perfect, most accessible way for eager opera newbies to experience one of the most charming bel canto operas in the repertoire without all the usual opera baggage.
For tickets and information, visit the In Series’ website here.
Rating: *** (Three stars.)
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