Wexford Festival: The Elixir of Love
Luca Capoferri music director/ piano, Adrian Mantu cello, Seamus Whily clarinet, Rory Lynch tenor, Maria Matthews soprano, David Kennedy baritone, Rory Musgrave baritone, Kathleen Nic Diarmada soprano
The Grain Store at Stonebridge, Wexford 25/10/2024
This year’s community-based adaptation at the Wexford Festival is Donizetti’s 1832 two-act opera ‘The Elixir of Love’, in Irish-vernacular English and a new setting by Timothy Knapman, a Wexford Factory production with all-Irish professional principals and a community chorus trained by Elizabeth Drwal. This way of community music making seems, to this reviewer at any rate, similar to the work in Scots by Paisley Opera with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, except that the score is presented in an ingenious reduction for piano (Luca Capoferri, who is also Music Director), cello (Adrian Mantu) and clarinet (Seamus Whily). Another difference is the non-theatrical venue, the Stonebridge Grain Store, delivering an immersive experience for the audience in the midst of (and indeed part of) the action (recalling Scottish Opera’s memorable ‘Candide’ a couple of years ago). Artistic Director of WFO, Rosetta Cucchi, directed the production. Peter McCamley, seen as Giocardio in ‘Le maschere’, delivered in another speaking role as a sort of Master of Ceremonies, with narration and guiding movement of the audience.
In this adaptation, ‘Adina’s’ is a popular and successful nightspot and the proprietress Adina (RCS graduate, soprano Maria Matthews ) is content with her carefree existence and has no interest in a monogamous relationship. Giannetta (Irish soprano Kathleen Nic Diarmada) is a waitress/bartender at the club and Adina’s confidante. Nemorino, who worships the ground on which Adina treads, is employed washing dishes in the establishment and she dismisses his protestations. He has it bad, so when conman weed-dealer ‘Doctor’ Dulcamara (Irish baritone Rory Musgrave) shows up promising potions to cure all ills, he asks if there is one that can make him irresistible to the object of his affections. Dulcamara is only too willing to relieve him of his sole 50-cent piece for a potion that will take a day to take effect (by which time, of course, he will be long gone). In this production, ‘The Soldiers’ are a rowdy gang of bikers led by Belcore (Irish baritone David Kennedy), who arrives ‘on the pull’. Belcore has no time for ‘loser’ (and worse - remember this is Irish vernacular) Nemorino and bullies him. But he fancies Adina big time and she, for her polyamorous part, is not averse to a ‘bit of rough’. More to spite the persistent pestering Nemorino than anything else, she agrees to wed Belcore the next day. This scuppers Nemorino’s plan, so he goes back to Dulcamara for a stronger more effective dose to beat the clock. Of course, now that he’s been hooked, that will cost him 20 euro, and he no longer has a cent. Dulcamara tells him he can get the cash by joining ‘The Soldiers’, a devil’s bargain. This he does. Dulcamara lets slip to Adina what Nemorino has done for the love of ‘some girl’. She realises the depth of his love and what she has driven him to. She ransoms him from ‘The Soldiers’ and they are united at last. Belcore and Giannetta, both now at a loose end, hook up ‘enthusiastically’. Only Dulcamara is left out in the cold.
The chorus comprised the waiting staff at Adina’s, ‘The Soldiers’, Dulcamara’s sidekick and an elegant but inebriated lady customer, sitting at one of the various cabaret tables, at which the audience were all accommodated (I was right beside the elegant lady). A carafe of a mocktail on each table was joined by glasses for everyone when the ‘waiting’ chorus brought them on trays. Currency on the tables was there to be proffered to Dulcamara when he came offering his wares. Notwithstanding my recent knee replacement, we were all hauled out of our seats to dance with the chorus members (no harm done). For the final scene, we all moved downstairs to ‘Adina’s Stockroom’, a cellar-like space on the ground floor with beer kegs etc. (one assumes that that was a second piano), where we stood, with the shorter people (like me) to the front. Certainly an ‘immersive experience’.
As I have had cause to remark about Paisley Opera, The Scots Opera Project and the Maryhill Community Chorus that featured in Scottish Opera’s ‘Candide’, the standard of singing and choreography of the community chorus was excellent. The principals too delivered in full measure, clearly having the time of their lives with the revised setting, the vernacular words and the opportunity for a mix of romantic and melodramatic characterisation, with more than a touch of comedy. What we got was Donizetti enhanced, rather than trimmed. The reduction for trio worked and I did not miss the orchestra for a moment. Particular highlights for me, apart from the sense of being in the midst of the action, were the surpassing loveliness of Maria Matthews’ coloratura and flawless messa di voce and Rory Lynch’s achingly beautiful rendition of ‘Una furtiva lagrima’, sung in Italian on the floor of the stockroom.
Overall, a very satisfying way to experience the beauty of Donizetti. Highly recommended.
Photo: Pádraig Grant