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The Review - MUSIC - Classical & Jazz with TONY KIELY
Published: 16 October 2008

Members of the Hampstead Garden Opera
company during rehearsals for L’Elisir d’Amore

Try a little tenderness

PREVIEW
L'ELISIR D' AMORE
Upstairs at the Gatehouse

LOVE is in the air this autumn, as Hampstead Garden Opera (HGO) takes on Donizetti’s endearing and enduring comedy, L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love).
The performance marks three firsts for the company: its first venture into Italian comic opera of the early 19th century; the first opera to be conducted by new music director Oliver-John Ruthven; and the first show to be directed by Bruno Ravella, fresh from triumphs at Glyndebourne, where last year he assisted Annabel Arden in her production of The Elixir for the touring company.
The orchestra will be the Dionysus Ensemble, which has played for every HGO production since 2004.
Mr Ruthven has embraced the energy of Donizetti’s melodrama, and it seems the performers are raring to go.
“It’s such a fun piece to sing and play, as well as to listen to,” he says. “Donizetti’s music carries all before it, with an irresistible sweep. It has the wit and sparkle of a Rossini comedy, but an added tenderness.”
Bruno Ravella has set his production in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1944, taking his inspiration from Broadway musicals of the time.

• L’Elisir d’Amore opens on November 6 (a special charity night in aid of SANE – tickets £35, including wine). Other performances are on November 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15 at 7.30 pm: matinées at 4pm on November 9 and 16. Tickets £20 (concessions £17). All seats unreserved. 0208 340 3488.

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