LA Opera Opens 2009/10 Season with Gaetano Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love
James Conlon to Conduct Revival Directed by Stephen Lawless;
Production Features Company Debuts of Tenor Giuseppe Filianoti, Soprano Nino
Machaidze and Bass Ruggero Raimondi, and the Return of Baritone Nathan Gunn
WHEN: Saturday, September 12 through Wednesday, September 30, 2024
Plácido Domingo, LA Opera’s Eli and Edythe Broad General Director, announced that the Company will open its 2009/10 season with a revival of its popular production of Gaetano Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece, The Elixir of Love (L’Elisir d’Amore) opening on Saturday, September 12 at 6:00pm. The production will be conducted by James Conlon, the Company’s Richard Seaver Music Director, and directed by Stephen Lawless, who returns to direct a production that he previously staged here in 1996 and 1999.
“LA Opera audiences will be charmed by the season-opening revival of L’Elisir d’Amore, the first bel canto opera to be seen here since Lucia di Lammermoor in 2003,” said Mr. Domingo. “This production will introduce three remarkable singers in their first appearances with LA Opera, as well as the return of one of America’s favorite baritones.”
LA Opera’s
revival of The Elixir of Love, one of Donizetti’s most enduring
and popular comedies, features an all-star cast that includes several notable
debuts. In the leading role of Nemorino, Italian tenor Giuseppe Filianoti
makes his Company debut as a young peasant desperate to attract the notice
of a beautiful and wealthy landowner. The object of Nemorino’s affection,
Adina, will be performed by Georgian soprano
Nino Machaidze in her U.S. debut. American baritone Nathan Gunn, who made
his LA Opera debut last season as Papageno in The Magic Flute, will return
as Sergeant Belcore, Nemorino’s blustery rival for Adina’s affections,
and the great Italian bass Ruggero Raimondi will make his Company debut as
Doctor Dulcamara, who seems to offer Nemorino the solution to all of his problems.
Soprano Valerie Vinzant, a member of LA Opera’s Domingo-Thornton Young
Artist Program, will perform the role of Giannetta.
Filled with light-hearted charm and yearning romance, The Elixir of Love features effervescent Italian melodies and plenty of bel canto vocal fireworks. The titular “elixir of love” is a quack doctor’s “magic” love potion that decides the fate of a love triangle involving a small-town bumpkin, a dashing sergeant and the bewitching town flirt in one of opera’s most popular comedies. Donizetti’s masterpiece beautifully counterpoises touching and comic elements to create an opera that ranges from heartfelt poignancy to unfettered joy. Musical highlights include Nemorino’s poignant “Una furtiva lagrima,” one of the most famous of all tenor arias.
The Elixir of Love will run for a total of seven performances from September 12 through 30. All performances will take place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 North Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA, 90012. Tickets to The Elixir of Love range from $20 to $260, and are on sale at the LA Opera Box Office, by phone at (213) 972-8001 or ONLINE .
Source: LA OPERA
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