L'Elisir d'Amore

A few nights ago, I took myself to the Conservatory, for a performance of Donizetti's 'L'Elisir d'Amore.' Although the Concert Hall wasn't designed with opera in mind, the staging worked well, complete with a narrow runway along the front and one side of the orchestra pit. In several scenes, singers entered and exited along the runway. Since I was in the third row, singers were often only a few feet away; it was instructive to see how hard the singers were working, and to hear how powerful their voices really were. The costumes were 'American Great Plains' circa 1940; I was reminded of the musical 'Oklahoma.' The running translation was unobtrusively projected onto the silhouette of a barn, at the left rear of the stage. The most impressive singer, of an impressive cast, was the tenor, Mario Rojas. He will have a great career.