Sarasota Opera’s 2020 winter season included Donizetti’s 1832 operatic comedy, “The Elixir of Love (L’Elisir d’Amore)”, presented in an attractive production with a strong cast.
Geoffrey Agpalo’s Nemorino and Adelaide Boedecker’s Adina
Illinois tenor Geoffrey Agpalo was the lovelorn rustic villager Nemorino, who, learning of the love potion that caused Isolde and Tristan to fall in love, seeks to find such a love potion to gain Adina’s affections. Agpalo deservedly drew audience ovations for Agpalo’s engaging and persuasive acting. Agpalo’s rich lyric voice was beautifully displayed in Nemorino’s showpiece aria Una furtiva lagrima, and in the ensemble pieces such as the concertato that begins Adina, credimi.
[Below: Geoffrey Agpalo as Nemorino; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
Donizetti’s music for the role of Nemorino helped establish the Italian lyric tenor vocal style that we associate with the operas of Verdi and his successors. (For my discussion of the importance of Donizetti in the evolution of the “the Italian tenor” voice, see my articles 21st Century Love for Donizetti’s “Elixir” and Gaetano Donizetti: European Romanticism and The Pathway to Verdi.)
[Below: Adelaide Boedecker as Adina; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
Florida lyric soprano Adelaide Boedecke was a sympathetic Adina, with an appealing lyric coloratura and affecting acting. Over the course of the opera Boedecker’s Adina discovers she needs no love elixir to admit she loves Agpalo’s Nemorino.
[Below: Nemorino (Geoffrey Agpalo, right) is confident that Adina (Adelaide Boedecker, left) will fall in love with him; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
Stefano de Peppo’s Doctor Dulcamara, Alex DeSocio’s Sergeant Belcore and Elizabeth Novella’s Giannetta
Italian bass-baritone Stefano de Peppo demonstrated the comic flair and facility for tongue-twisting patter required to perform the role of the charalatan Doctor Dulcamara, the opera’s buffo character.
[Below: Stefano de Peppo as Doctor Dulcamara; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
Kansas baritone Alex DeSocio took on the role of the narcissistic Sergeant Belcore with appropriate swagger and a fine lyric baritone voice. DeSocio made a brilliant impression singing Belcore’s cavatina Come Paride vezzoso.
[Below: Ales DeSocio as Sergeant Belcore; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
New York soprano and Sarasota Opera Studio Artist Elizabeth Novella rounded out the cast, making a sparkling impression, visually and vocally, as the seconda donna Giannetta.
[Below: Elizabeth Novella as Giannetta; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
Maestro John F. Spencer IV and the Sarasota Opera Orchestra and Chorus
New York Maestro John F. Spencer IV led the Sarasota Orchestra in a bright-sounding performance of Donizetti’s cheerful score. The Chorus, comprised of Sarasota Opera Apprentices, filled the stage with village rustici and the platoon of soldiers accompanying Belcore.
[Below: Doctor Dulcamara (Stefano de Peppo, front left) entertains at what was supposed to be the wedding dinner for Belcore (Alex DeSocio, seated, left) and Adina (seated, center) as Giannetta (Elizabeth Novella, seated right), Belcore’s platoon and villagers (Sarasota Opera Chorus) look on; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
Marco Nistico’s Stage Direction, Roger Hanna’s Scenic Design and Howard Tsvi Kaplan’s Costumes
Italian baritone Marco Nistico, who has sung six roles at the Sarasota Opera, including Manfredo [Review: Sarasota Opera’s Affectionate Mounting of “Love for Three Kings [L’Amore dei Tre Re]” – March 11, 2017] took on his first Sarasota Opera assignment as stage director.
[Below: Nemorino (Geoffrey Agpalo, center) interprets his sudden attention from Giannetta (Elizabeth Novella, front, left) and the village’s women (Sarasota Opera Chorus) as the effect of the love elixir, not aware that he has just received an enormous inheritance; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
Sarasota Opera’s reputation is that of a company that strictly follows the directorial and scenic intentions of an opera’s composer and librettist. Nistico’s direction was consistent with that reputation, the result being a smoothly flowing, intelligently staged performance of one of opera’s most beloved romantic comedies.
[Below: Doctor Dulcamara (Stefano de Peppo, center, reads a list of ailments his elixir supposedly treats; edited image, based on a Rod Millington photograph, courtesy of the Sarasota Opera.]
Roger Hanna’s sets, designed to maximize the space on the historic opera house’s limited stage, were colorful and effective, as were the costumes of Howard Tsvi Kaplan.
Recommendation
My review was written to recommend strongly the Sarasota Opera’s cast, musical performance and production of “The Elixir of Love”, both for the veteran opera goer and the newcomer to opera.
Although I reviewed the fourth of seven scheduled performances, the last two scheduled performances were cancelled as a result of the national state of emergency declaration created by the coronovirus pandemic.
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