Donizetti: L'Elisir d'amore [Elixir of Love] (Complete opera)

"The bicentenary of Donizetti's birth has been virtually overlooked this year in favour of the Schubert, Brahms and Mendelssohn commemorations, but near the end of it comes this delightful set to put things partly to rights. As Philip Gossett suggests in his thoughtful booklet-essay, in this work the composer ideally combined the needs of comedy and sentiment, and that is the reason it has always been so loved by opera goers.

The new set catches these contrasting moods to perfection under Pido's alert and affectionate conducting, not least because the recording is based on live performances at the Lyon Opera (a video of the stage production is on the stocks). Everyone, chorus and orchestra as much as the principals, enters enthusiastically into the mood of the piece so that you sense it being enacted before your eyes. To complete one's pleasure Decca have provided an ideally balanced sound picture (courtesy of producer Michael Haas and balance engineers James Lock and Simon Eadon) which has plenty of natural presence.

But main interest will undoubtedly be on how our most sought-after operatic pairing is going to fare in the central roles. Gheorghiu presented her credentials as Adina at Covent Garden last season. Some found her dramatically a shade shrewish in the part, but Adina is a feisty, temperamental girl, and a touch of steel doesn't seem to me inappropriate. It makes her capitulation when she realizes the true depth of Nemorino's feelings that much more moving. And so it is on disc. She provides plenty of flirtatious fire in the early scenes and turns Nemorino away with determination, making her intentions clear in pointed attack in the recitative, but her concern for him is never far below the surface and comes to the fore in her colloquy with Dulcamara.

All this is conveyed in singing that matches warmth with pointed diction and fleet technique, something essential at Pido's sometimes racy speeds (Adina's final cabaletta is a little fast for comfort). The contrast in her approach can be illustrated by the whizzing projection of "Una tenera occhiatina" and the sensuous, palpitating tone she gives to "Prendi, per me sei libero". Listen to the single word "resta", plaintively expressing her real love for Nemorino. Then the line "Sempre scontento e mesto" has an even, limpid cut precisely in accord with the illuminating moment in the drama. It's a winning interpretation on all fronts.

Alagna's Nemorino is almost on the same level. Since he recorded the role under Viotti for Erato he has evidently given it more thought, his singing having added life and variety, though he eschews a few piano touches he found appropriate there. He obviously enjoys himself greatly as the lovelorn yokel, one with a vulnerable soul as he shows at his moment of greatest heartbreak, "Adina, credimi" in the Act 1 finale. His sense of fun is obvious in the bottle-shaking episode when he thinks he has found the elixir of the title. There were moments when I thought this style just a shade strenuous for the part; a little more caressing would have been welcome, but he does find that missing element in "Una furtiva lagrima". And here comes the surprise of the performance: he sings a version which the composer composed for revival in which the music is transposed down to G to accommodate a gently ornamented second strophe. I am not convinced that it is as effective as the original but it makes an interesting alternative.

The two Italians in the lower roles are admirable. Scaltriti may not be as preening as some Belcores but he sings the part with a firmness (though too many aspirates) that older singers miss and he is fully in character. Alaimo is a naturally witty Dulcamara and never indulges in unwanted buffo mugging though he lacks the ripe, rich timbre of Taddei on the Serafin version and of Panerai on the unavailable Ferro version (DG, 1/88 - nla). As with all the singers on the new set he is very much part of a team. The score is, of course, given absolutely complete.

The Erato set, now at mid price, presents formidable opposition and anyone who possesses it may not want the new set. Devia is a less wilful, less vivid Adina than Gheorghiu, but her style is, if possible, even more idiomatic. There's not much to choose between the Belcores and Dulcamaras, but as a whole the Decca sounds, not surprisingly, the more lifelike reading. Two earlier recordings, the Serafin on EMI at budget price and the mid-price Decca with di Stefano, are both vivid performances, but both are cut. The super-budget Naxos has much to commend it including the same Dulcamara as here, but neither performance nor recording is in the same class as the new version, which thus becomes a clear and welcome choice for this work, worth every penny of the asking price."
(Gramophone)