L’elisir d’amore, an Italian comic opera, was written by Gaetano Donizetti in just two weeks. Premiered in Milan in 1832, it was immediately a tremendous success. Its amusing and witty plot describing relationships of a loving couple and beautiful, melodious and light music make
L’elisir d’amore one of the most frequently performed 19th-century Italian operas.
The libretto of the opera, written after the French playwright Eugene Scribe’s comedy, is based on the legend about the magic love potion, taken from Gottfried von Strassburg’s courtly romance Tristan. The unexpected, mock interpretation of the medieval legend gives it a new meaning: people are capable of filling each other with the elixir of love and kindness without any magic potion.
The feelings experienced by the opera’s characters – love, coquetry, rivalry, jealousy – are everlasting as life. So, the story of L’elisir d’amore could be set at a Venetian carnival several centuries ago, just as well as in a present-day town.
