The Elixir of Love

Oh I Do Like to Be Beside The Seaside

The Elixir of Love

by Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Felice Romani, translation by Joseph Morris

Wild Arts Summer at Opera Holland Park until 16^th August

Review by Patrick Shorrock

Donizetti’s evergreen opera might seem like a soft option for an opera company, but realising its charms to the full actually takes a lot of hard work, talent, and good judgement. A performance as delightful as this one – for all its feeling of effortless spontaneity – doesn’t come out of nowhere.

This young cast all had attractive voices that were wellused and they all acted with just the right level of enthusiasm as an ensemble, rather than competing for the audience’s attention. Guido Martin-Brandis set the production by the seaside in the 1950s.

Pedants may complain that this sat rather uneasily with a very free translation from Joseph Morris that was amusingly stuffed with rather more contemporary references. And purists may not like the musical arrangement made by conductor Orlando Jopling and Hamish Brown, which takes a few harmless liberties with the score, including the use of an accordion in the duet for Dulcamara and Adina and a fun musical quotation of the love potion motif from Wagner’s Tristan. Anyone else is likely to be thoroughly delighted, as it’s perfectly clear that they do what they do out of love for this opera and a desire to enable it to have full impact on today’s audience.

And they certainly know what they are doing. Nobody tries too hard or sings too loudly or goes in for audience mugging. Sophie Lincoln’s designs are both atmospheric and minimal – nothing more than a few deckchairs, some bunting, and some fairy lights for Act Two – but provide absolutely all that is needed. The costumes are very stylish, 50s, and Italian in look, including a scarlet number for Adina that combines hot pants with a stylish long skirt, matching shirts and shorts for the men, old fashioned swimming costumes for the women, and candy stripes and white coat for Dulcamara. Only poor Nemorino is blandly dressed.

Instead of a chorus, we have Giannetta – a sparkling, beautifully sung performance from Bethan Terry – plus three other singers (Laura Mekhail, Eamonn Walsh, and Alex Pratley). This works really well, as the stage is peopled with individual characters rather than an implausibly huge number of singers. (Charles Court Opera’s Mikado does something similar.) Galina Averina didn’t have the sadistic edge or complacency of some Adinas and was all the better for it as well as providing some lovely singing. Xavier Hetherington did a splendid job both of his aria with some gorgeous honeyed tone and also showed with great effectiveness how Nemorino grows in confidence and hope.

Timothy Nelson’s Belcore was a naval captain rather than the usual soldier, which was both appropriate for a seaside setting and redolent of that other operatic cad, Lt Pinkerton. He was rather more obnoxious than some Belcores, but very attractively sung. I’d love to hear him in Verdi. Alex Jones displayed a light touch as Dulcamara, while fully delivering on the comedy. The fact he is a complete conman always leaves a slightly nasty taste, especially when he gets away with it to mass applause. I rather liked the way the production gave rampant capitalism a rap on the knuckles — as well as acknowledging our complicity – by having most of the cast don white coats to join his sales force at the end.

Patrick Shorrock, August 2025

Photography by Becca Hunt