Columns linked to The Elixir of Love - English National Opera (2024)

Harry Fehr’s New Production of The Elixir of Love at the Londo...

Sam Smith

Premiering in Milan in 1832, The Elixir of Love, with a libretto by Felice Romani, is one of Gaetano Donizetti’s most popular operas. Originally set in a village in the Basque Country at the end of the eighteenth century, it sees the peasant Nemorino love the landowner Adina, even as she tells him she is fickle and that he should forget her. When, however, she reads the legend of Tristan and Isolde, Nemorino is inspired to ask travelling quack doctor Dulcamara if he has any of the...