His name, translated into English as “sweet and sour,” gives us a clue to his shady character. Dulcamara, a clever, if rather seedy, mountebank, peddling common Bordeaux wine in fancy bottles as the universal cure-all.

To my mind, the only way to truthfully portray the characters and situations in this drama is to perform it in its original setting (modern-day heresy!) as the composer and librettist intended! The show curtain, reproducing a lithograph of an early production of the opera, takes us immediately to this time and place, the world of Dr. “L’Elisir d’Amore” is a charming and convincing musical portrait of life in a small Italian town in the early 19thcentury. The School of Music’s last “Elixir of Love” from manyyears ago was transported to the Wild West. The “Las Vegas Rigoletto” currently at The Met, presents The Duke of Mantua as the Frank Sinatra figure, along with other members of his “Rat Pack.” Right here at Krannert Center we have seen “The Marriage of Figaro” updated to the Spanish Civil War with Count Almaviva portrayed, questionably in my opinion, as a Fascist officer.

'The current world of opera has seen numerous productions of the classic masterpieces that seek to transport the action forward to the present day, or to a time and place more familiar to contemporary audiences.

Lyric opera elixir of love