Gaetano Donizetti’s beloved 1832 opera L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) opens the Israeli Opera’s 2025 season next month under director Shirit Lee Weiss. Yael Levita will take on the role of Adina, a haughty overseer of Italian village laborers. Among them is Nemorino (Mario Rojas), who is deeply in love with Adina despite her rebuking him. The scenic village life is disturbed by two outsiders, the army officer Belcore (Oded Reich), who seeks a place to lodge his men and the amazing doctor Dulcamara (Ionut Pascu).
It is Dulcamara who offers the gullible Nemorino the love elixir that serves as the plot engine of this charming tale, rich with splendid scenes. Among them is Dulcamara offering his many snake charms. These, he boasts, can turn even an ailing man in his 70s into a father of ten children (“Udite, udite, o rustici” – Hear, hear, you rustics!).
The role of Giannetta, a young woman on good terms with both main characters, will be performed by Anat Czarny. It is her part in “Saria Possibile” (Is It Possible), a gossipy scene about a fortune reversal that serves as a key turning point in this comic opera.
“There is some nostalgia to this production,” Weiss told The Jerusalem Post, “as it is a homage to the much loved 1997 production by the late Omri Nitzan, and so offers the audience the embrace of something familiar. In this case, an Italian village transformed into an Israeli kibbutz, to see a life-affirming society depicted on stage.”
Nitzan, Weiss told the Post, imagined Dulcamara as a Jewish-American uncle who glides to the stage in a pink Cadillac, offering to fix everything. For this production, the original vehicle was located in the opera warehouse and made serviceable. Weiss added a new element: The chorus members are staged like kibbutz kibitzers, who spend their time watching and discussing the tiny events of their community.
Wealth on stage means richness of Israeli life
Sunflowers are a major visual element in this production. Nitzan originally introduced it, and Weiss sees it as a shorthand for the Israeli heart, broken after the October 7 Hamas terror attack and now returning to feel what life contains – both sorrow and joy.
“This opera might seem like pure fun,” Weiss explained, “but the same composer also created Lucia di Lammermoor, which is a tragic opera.” A revival of that opera, directed by Omer Ben Seadia, was staged at the Israeli Opera early last year. “The music created for Adina also has depths as she overcomes hardships.”
“We decided to view Adina as a woman burnt by love,” Levita told the Post. “She is not a snob – she simply built an emotional armor to protect herself.”
Levita noted how wonderful it is to have a large chorus on stage, sharing how much strength this lends to the performance.
When there is a wealth of people on stage, there is also a richness of Israeli life represented there.
“This is a sort of Israeli-ness which includes all of us who live here,” she pointed out. “We imagined Adina in this production as a kibbutz secretary who handles payments and sees to it that flower deliveries will leave on time, but the community on stage has many types in it, not only farm hands.”
“Usually,” Reich informed the Post, “Belcore is depicted as very arrogant; in this production we want to show him in a more insecure way.
“This is an army man who would much rather be an artist,” he suggested.
Reich was born in Kibbutz Eilon near the Lebanese border. This community is among those displaced due to the war up north.
“There used to be an idea of the kibbutz as a place which offers freedom, to run around barefoot,” Reich said, “that has really changed since the October 7 Hamas terror attack.”
An opera singer and music educator, Reich noted that for several years now, his professional community has been dealing with unprecedented tension and confusion rarely imagined in other opera houses outside Israel.
“There was an air siren in Tel Aviv during the premiere of Theodor,” an opera about Zionist leader Theodor Herzl, where Reich plays the title role, “and we all begin immersing ourselves in our respective roles only when we know for sure the performance is going to happen, usually at the last possible moment due to all the unexpected factors.
“This is why we must invest in Israeli opera talents right here at home,” the Belcore actor said. “Just like in other issues, we must be able to achieve our own goals – artistic ones too – with our own pool of local talents.”
Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore will premiere at the Israeli Opera on Thursday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m. The last show will be performed on Monday, November 18, at 6 p.m. NIS 205-467 per ticket. Call (03) 692-7777 for bookings. Sung in Italian with English and Hebrew subtitles. The Israeli Opera, 19 Shaul Hamelech St., Tel Aviv.
