Composer Gaetano Donizetti. Libretto by Felice Romani after Eugène Scribe.
The dreary life in the small Anacrete village depicted by the composer Gaetano Donizetti and his librettist Felice Romani does not offer much variety - the only perspective outside this small world seems to be the illusion of a heroic soldier's life, even if that could mean death.
But what a difference a bottle of Bordeaux can make: The intimidated Nemorino really turns up the heat in his courtship of Adina when he drinks the wine sold as an elixir of love by the miracle doctor Dulcamara. The potion promptly takes effect, Nemorino becomes a daredevil and would rather die in war than have his beloved Adina in the hands of the soldier Belcore. The ambitious Adina cannot resist the charm of the daring Nemorino - and even Dulcamara is amazed at the energy and art of transformation his deception unleashes: The sad world full of wistful longing is suddenly full of color and fantasy.
And the audience is left with the hope that the music, with all its poetry, can transform them too.
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