About the work
Gaetano Donizetti's two-act comic opera was premiered on 12 May 1832 at the Teatro della Canobbiana Milan—composed in a frantic two weeks after the theatre's planned new opera fell through. The libretto by Felice Romani, adapted from Eugène Scribe's text for Auber's Le Philtre, is set in a Basque village and combines pastoral comedy with genuinely tender romance. The work became one of the most frequently performed operas of the nineteenth century and remains a repertoire favourite.
Plot
The simple peasant Nemorino is in love with the wealthy and educated Adina, who mocks his devotion. When Nemorino sees the travelling quack doctor Dulcamara selling a magical love elixir—actually a bottle of cheap Bordeaux wine—he spends his last coin on it. Encouraged by the wine's effects, Nemorino behaves with new confidence, which Adina interprets as indifference. She engages herself to the vain Sergeant Belcore. A rumour spreads that Nemorino has inherited a fortune; suddenly all the village women pursue him. Adina, realising she truly loves him, breaks her engagement with Belcore. In the opera's famous aria, Una furtiva lagrima, Nemorino glimpses a tear in Adina's eye and understands that she loves him.
Cultural significance
L'Elisir d'Amore contains Una furtiva lagrima, among the most beloved tenor arias in all opera. The role of Nemorino has been a signature for great lyric tenors from Caruso through Tito Schipa, Carlo Bergonzi, Luciano Pavarotti, and more recently Juan Diego Flórez. The comic baritone role of Dulcamara, with his showman's patter aria Udite, udite, o rustici, is among the most entertaining character parts in opera. The work's blend of vocal virtuosity and genuine human warmth has kept it continuously popular since the premiere.