The Elixir of Love

You know that feeling when you meet someone and they are sweet and pretty and friendly but you take an immediate, inexplicable dislike to them? they just sort of irritate? especially when they smile at you? and you want to force a cigarette into their mouth or something - something to make then a bit less, well, sweet? that's just about how i felt watching Jonathan Miller's ENO production of The Elixir of Love. i wanted to like it - it being an English translation of the Italian opera by Donizetti, transported to a 1950s diner in the American Midwest (superficially very up my street) - but i couldn't help thinking that it just wasn't very, errr, if i said 'cool enough a production' would that be shallow and bad? maybe. it sort of just didn't hit the right notes for me. it was a bit too neat. too 1950s - you could almost feel the production's clever clever smugness at how well the love story was transposed to its new era/setting.

The story sees lovable loser Nemorino in love with diner owner Adina. she's a hot little Marylin-esque minx who's supposedly committed to being independent (ha ha - her MO is flirting). then cheese-tastic cigar-smoking, gum-chewing US army captain Belcore arrives on the scene to woo her, but she's unimpressed by him too. then a full-of-shit travelling salesman arrives, Dr Dulcamara (a scene stealing con man) supposedly selling magic elixir. Nemorino buys some believing it the secret to making Adina love him (as per a Tristan and Isolde story, with which she was regaling the diner's guests at the opera's start). arrogant with the promised potential of the potion, Nemorino gives Adina the cold shoulder, and she, unsurprisingly, gets jealous and promises to marry the soldier - to rile Nemorino. But she eventually ends up jilting the captain and running off with Nemorino when she realises she does, in fact, love him - and then he inherits a fortune, so they are not poor any more either. jolly.

as with any irrational dislike of a person, it seemed that it was the stupidest things in the production that really got my goat. the girls' shoes really annoyed me. hideous orthopaedic creations that they were. the over zealous supporting characters with ridiculously expressive faces. the fact that the telegraph pole that was part of the set was stuck in the ground in a really shit way. the clothes were not particularly well fitting. then my father pointed out that the motorcycle prop was a British make, not American, and that the car number plate was wrong for the car/era etc. these things obviously didn't ruin the production - but it was a bit like seeing that the aforementioned irrational hatred person had spinach in their teeth. it just added to the skin crawling annoyance.

the second half saw a surprising volte face by moi. maybe it was because i ate something (smoked salmon on toast, yum) in the interval. who knows, but i warmed to the minxy Adina. i completely fell for the con-man doctor, who switched between English and Italian to hilarious effect (see below). the costumes got remarkably better as evening dress was adopted. in a strange about turn i forgot about the elbow/armchair war i was having with my OAP neighbour and began to enjoy myself. a few things still grated (stupid on stage jokes - grrr), but generally i was happy. Sarah Tynan as Adina really can belt out a tune. i think also the thing was there was a great sense of unity and in cahoots-ness in the auditorium. this was because both John Tessier, who plays Nemorino, and his understudy, were ill. they had to draft in an Italian who sang the Nemorino part in Italian (while everyone else sang in English around him). it made the duets a bit weird, but in a good way.

if this production was indeed a person, I'm not sure they'd be my best friend, but I'm not sure I'd hate them quite as much as i did initially. I'm not sure if this metaphor really works, but it makes sense to me.