A mad romp? But of course...
My first Glyndebourne Festival Opera of 2023 is Donizetti's L'Elisir D'Amore, directed by Annabel Arden.
This is a two-act romp, (and Glyndebourne revival from 2007) set in a broadly 1920s Italian(?) village.
Boy loves girl, girl slights boy, girl plays up to a military rival, humiliation, reconciliation, huge inheritance and love. All over 24 hours, apparently, and on single set - the village square.
Like all such operas this is of course wholly unconvincing narratively, and none the worse for that.
What we want is great tunes wonderfully sung, and we get that in spades, and particularly from Matteo Desole as the boy, Nemorino, and the wonderful Nardus Williams as the girl, Adina. The soldier (Belcore) is Biagio Pizzuti, the quack doctor (Dulcamara) is well sung and acted by Renato Girolami and is more than ably assisted by the non-singing Maxime Nourissat, a great comic mountebank and huckster.
This is a romp and played as one, but Donizetti would have approved as his music hit all the right grace-notes, (and was beautifully presented by the cast and chorus). Updated (at least in setting) slightly, but with love. Which the enthusiastic audience returned. It appears again in the 'tour' sadly (and thanks Arts Council), not really touring this year!