The National Theatre Brno presents the opera L'elisir d'amore

19 October 2017, 4:00
The National Theatre Brno presents the opera L'elisir d'amore

The opera by Gaetano Donizetti is being presented by the National Theatre Brno in the directorial conception of Magdalena Švecová. The musical arrangement of Ondrej Olos accompanies the singers: Ondřej Koplík, José Manuel, Kateřina Kněžíková, Roman Hoza, Tereza Kyzlinková and others.

Gaetano Donizetti’s opera L'elisir d'amore is a tale of young lovers. The production by director Magdalena Švecová takes the audience to the sunny Italian countryside, to a film studio from the 1940s. Adina is an admired film star and Nemorino a shy member of the film crew. Dulcamara is a temperamental actor and director and the whole team is preparing to film a light sentimental comedy. The arrival of the famous foreign actor and heartthrob Belcore starts to complicate things.

Magdalena Švecová studied the violin at the conservatories in České Budějovice and in Prague, then at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. In 2004 she graduated in opera direction from the Janáček Academy of Musical Arts in Brno in the class of Alena Vaňáková. This year she has already worked with the National Theatre in Prague – Britten’s Noye’s Fludde. Currently she is also teaching opera acting at the Plzen Conservatory and specialises in stage movement as part of musical drama.

The Brno premiere will take place on Friday 20 October from 7 p.m. in the Mahen Theatre.

Donizetti’s L'elisir d'amore, which had its first performance in 1832 in Milan, is not an entirely original story and came to the rescue at the last minute after another composer pulled out of the premiere. Donizetti and Romani chose a theme that had been used a year earlier by Auber and Scribe in the opera Le philtre, which also means a love potion. Donizetti’s version however, unlike the French original, has been since its premiere one of the most popular operas. One hit after another sounds from the stage but the most important point is that Donizetti and Romani transcended the borders of the comic genre and gave their characters true and deep human feelings. The moments when Nemorino discovers that Adina loves him, and her tentative admission, when she returns his military contract and others are not only attractive melodies, but a searching perspective on the human heart in love. It is possible that Donizetti was aided by his own experience when a wealthy lady saved him before he was taken into the Austrian army.

L'elisir d'amore / photo Marek Olbrzymek

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