Exclusive by Fabio Albanese for © DiBartolocritic –

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It is best to start from the end: from the warm and prolonged applause of the Covent Garden audience, satisfied and entertained by what they had seen in the two and a half hours of music and bel canto. And since there was so much applause, and the public is always right, it must immediately be said that this “L'elisir d'amore” by Gaetano Donizetti, in the ten-year and successful staging of Laurent

Pelly, on its fourth time and now taken by Daniel Dooner, hit the mark: beautiful voices, excellent stage presence, orchestra and choir at the top. You really couldn't wish for more.

And therefore if a note needs to be underlined it is in the setting that Pelly, with the sets by Chantal Thomas and lights by Joël Adam, wanted in a small village in the Italian countryside of the 1950s, with stacks of hay bales on which “they live” the protagonists, two old Lambrettas, mopeds, bicycles, a (real) dog that runs from one side of the stage to the other drawing amused comments from the audience, a tractor, a paninari-style truck which is the shop of the scammer Dulcamara; beautiful costumes, by Pelly himself with Donate Marchand, but too oleographically represented (for example, Nemorino's horizontal striped t-shirt looks like a gondolier of the decades gone by). But the public, especially if it is an international public like that of the Royal Opera House, rightly pays no attention to these things and in any case a show must be convincing and coherent. And this is it.

The Elixir seen on Sunday 11 June included some interesting journalistic insights regarding the rumors; Roh stages it with two casts of equal value, one for the first performances, the other for the last.

What we saw and heard is the cast of the first performances with a single, albeit fundamental, variation: the role of Nemorino, here entrusted to Ivan Magrì from Catania, making his debut at the Royal Opera House and already in the cast of Rigoletto next season.

Together with the South African soprano Pretty Yende-Adina, Magrì was the star of the evening: beautiful voice, excellent stage presence, a slight imperfection at the end of the first act but really good in “A furtive tear” which kept the audience in the large Covent Garden hall in suspense until the last note.

And then there's her, Pretty Yende. Her Adina is scandalously sensual, naively cheeky, tenderly passionate, and her voice is perfect in the passages as in the most impervious parts of Donizetti's score; her pronunciation of the poetic Italian of the librettist Felice Romani quickly makes us forget that she is not Italian. A nice surprise, also making her debut at Roh having already passed through Metropolitan and Scala.

Of great value, but the artist's value is well known, the Belcore by Paolo Bordogna (another role debut for Roh), who prefers to replace the character's typical arrogance with a comic figure that appears more in line with the proposed setting. There is very little to say about the voice, Bordogna is an excellent baritone and he confirms it on this occasion too.

In the end Dulcamara. He is Alex Esposito, Bergamo bass-baritone with a fine career, who here offers a truly singular reading of the character, complete with tattoos, big necklace and dark glasses, excellent stage presence, powerful and flawless voice.

The cast is completed by the young and interesting voice of Vlada Borovko, in the role of Giannetta, already heard at Roh in an Adriana Lecouvreur last winter:

The French Bertrand de Billy he led the orchestra of the Royal Opera House with wisdom and with a delicate and soft gesture, delivering a faithful reading of Donizetti's work, enhancing the great talents of the orchestra teachers and their perfect harmony, with the sound of Christopher Willis' fortepiano. The choir, directed by William Spaulding, offered a performance of great merit, both

both from a vocal perspective and from a stage action perspective.

Made in co-production with the Paris Opera, the Elisir repeats at the Royal Opera House until 22 June; from the 13th the other cast enters the scene, with the artistic and life couple Alagna-Kurzak.