The Cast of ENO’s The Elixir of Love 2024 © Marc BrennerFor English National Opera’s new production, a giant television screen plays the opening credits to an episode of THE ELIXIR OF LOVE showing the lead performers of the sitcom in various poses at a slightly passed it’s prime landed estate during the Second World War. It is here that Adina the lady of the Manor (Welsh soprano Rhian Lois) hosts RAF servicemen, and her below stairs kitchen serves lunch to workers from the estate and Land Girls helping the war effort. The set-up is crisp, fresh and amusing and wastes little time.
Eternally moping youth Nemorino (New Zealand tenor Thomas Atkins) bemoans the fact that as a conscientious objector bookworm, he has neither the wit nor courage to attract anything but playful scorn and mocking from Adina whom he worships from afar. Meanwhile RAF hero Belcore (Irish-British baritone Dan D’Souza) assumes that every woman adores a uniformed man with dashing good looks, and sets his sights on wooing Adina for himself. When a slick snake oil salesman Dulcamara (American bass-baritone Brandon Cedel) arrives on the estate touting his miracle cures for every ailment known to man, the workers lap-up his pitch and snap-up his wares, but might he have something extra special which could help Nemorino tip the balance in his favour and win the affections of the lady he adores?
Dusting-off the classics of the operatic repertoire and imposing your vision, always comes at a risk, but here, what could so easily have fallen into the realms of pastiche and kitschy cliché has achieved a quite remarkable feat and enlivened an already lively and animated piece.
Once again, the chorus were attentive in servicing the needs of the principals and whilst Amanda Holden’s translation added confoundingly clunky complications for the cabaletta, the always anticipated highs of Una furtiva lagrima and Prendi per mei sei libero, did not disappoint.
Austrian-Spanish conductor Teresa Riveiro Böhm contributed yet further to the international feel of the production and whilst her occasional willingness to be held by the onstage performers didn’t detract from the overall energy, there were a couple of moments when this reviewer craved a tad more zeal from the baton to ensure the comedic elements remained as aroused and ardent as the wooed and wooing on the other side of the footlights.
Nicky Shaw’s angled set served as both kitchen and comfortable country house state room whilst Zahra Mansouri‘s costume designs found the right balance between make-do-and-mend workwear and the glamorous and sharply-cut tailoring of the era. Matt Powell’s video design added the twinkle in the eye to the opening TV montage which amusingly set the tone for the production.
