Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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Donizetti’s comic opera wins the hearts even of kids

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As a parent, last week's Royal Opera House Muscat presentation would have been a great breather and escape for your kids. Only showing for two days, L’Elisir d’Amore — The Factory of Ideas managed to capture the hearts not just of the parents but surprisingly even the kids and while I originally thought that Opera shows will be too complicated for them to understand, it was heartwarming to see that the message wasn't lost on those who attended.


Donizetti’s comic opera, L’Elisir d’Amore, is a love story that unfolds in a factory where workers are trying desperately to save the business from failure. With the factory of Ideas, Teatro Sociale di Como – As.Li.Co. has created an engaging interpretation for audiences to access comic opera. What makes last weekend's performance more interesting is that children were actually encouraged to sing along and interact. This cleverly customised production directed by Manuel Renga, offered a platform for the audiences and especially the children to play an active role in the opera.


L'Elisir d'Amore was the most often performed opera in Italy between 1838 and 1848 and has remained so continually in the international opera repertory. Today it is one of the most frequently performed of all Donizetti's operas appearing as number 13 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide in the five seasons between 2008 and 2013. Watching the show as an audience member, it was easy to pick up the inspiration behind the show combining the vibrance of Charlie Chaplin's famous film Modern Times and the beloved Mel Stuart's Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.


The show was opened by the young talented conductor, Azzurra Steri, who made her debut in October 2015 with L’Elisir d’Amore. She gave the audience an overview of what the show is all about promising to take the attendees on a journey towards the 75 minutes engaging opera.


The Elixir of Love is set in a factory producing (without success) cough syrup, where Adina is the cunning daughter of the owner, and Nemorino is a simple worker in love with her. Everybody in the factory is sad as the factory is failing and the cough medicine is not selling. If they don’t find a recipe for the cough medicine that works, the factory will have to close and everyone will lose their jobs.


As earlier noted, the audience were encouraged to participate in singing famous arias from the opera. The screens behind the seats giving them an idea of what's the lyrics to the music being played.


The story revolved around Nemorino's countless challenges and despite the obstacle, was an optimistic story of persistence and how this characteristic will evetually led to him succeeding in gaining Adina's love.


Half of the audience were children and once the prformance was finished, it was amazing to see the reaction of the overjoyed children. Not only were the children allowed to interact with the characters during their performance, the performers also took photos with the children.


Overall, the performance was crisp and engaging which was why both parents and children fell in love with the characters. Although everyone gave their best, I was quite impressed to see the talent of Nico Franchini who was performing as Nemorino. Inspite of Nemorino’s unimpressive character, he was still able to express his deep love and own the heart of the audience.


Azzurra Steri, the conductor of the show, deserved an accolade as well as she gave out a very impressive performance and her confidence tied the whole show together.


Surprisingly, the team working on the set design also needs to be commended. While targeted for children, the backdrop all the way to set direction, the costumes and the characters really did take the beautiful story back to Italy's 18th century.


In summary, it was an amazing show, one I hoped will have multiple performances so that other children are allowed to witness it as well. But just as any ROHM performance goes, it was only here for a weekend and it was worth spending an evening with such a great cast.


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Follow the writer on Instagram: @rumpa_mitra


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