The Elixir of Love, JuNE-August 2023

Essex Summer Opera Festival (and tour) / Wild Arts

A piece I’ve loved and wanted to direct for many years, I was invited by Orlando Jopling to stage Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore for the Essex Summer Opera festival at the historic Layer Marney Tower, and then a subsequent tour to Heronsgate, Thaxted Festival, Childerley Hall, and Hever Castle. Sung in English in a new translation, with a new arrangement by Hamish Brown, the production was set at the seaside in the early 1950s. You can read my thoughts on the piece and production in my programme notes here. We regularly performed to sold out venues and audience and critical reception was extremely positive (see reviews and audience feedback below). Direction: Guido Martin-Brandis. Design: Sophie Lincoln. Graphic Design, Lighting Design: Guido Martin-Brandis. Photography: Bonnie Britain and Lucy J Toms. Lighting Technician: Brian Bolton. Poster Design: Max Parfitt

Nemorino - Thomas Elwin

Adina - Galina Averina

Belcore - James Atkinson

Dulcamara - Alex Jones

Gianetta - Sofia Kirwin-Baez

Lauretta - Rebecca Milford

Claudio - Harry Jacques

Roberto - Robert Garland

Conductor - Orlando Jopling

Reviews and comments - (more to come)

Colin Clarke - Opera Now - 5 stars

★★★★★

“This L’elisir was 100% convincing at all levels.

Wild Arts’ performance honoured all aspects of this miraculous score.

The chemistry between the ever-so-shy Nemorino and the lit-from-within Adina was palpable; his delight in being suddenly thrust into the centre of (multiple female) attention in the second act, brilliant.

Joseph Morris’ translation of Felice Romani’s libretto was a work of art in itself, beautifully comedic and in highly idiomatic English. Imagination was everything. Stagings in a church beg for simplicity, and here, a ‘blue sky’ drop against which the action unfolded sufficed perfectly. Sophie Lincoln’s costume designs were impeccable.

The cast was young and talented – the baseline was exceptional.”

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Robert Hugill - Planet Hugill

“Stylish performances and an emphasis on character make this small-scale yet inventive production wonderfully engaging.

Thanks to the way Guido Martin-Brandis' production emphasised character and thanks to some stylish performances from the cast, this a wonderfully enjoyable and engaging performance that really punched above its weight. The audience in Thaxted clearly loved it and were fully engaged, whilst this experienced reviewer was carried away as well.

An admirably polished and rather sophisticated performance.

This was a remarkably compact production, Sophie Lincoln's designs consisted simply of a blue-sky backdrop, a pair of deck chairs and some bunting, but there were evocative 1950s-period costumes and plenty of amusing 1950s-style props for Dulcamara's sales routine. This was one of those lovely productions that had no axe to grind.

The 1950s period was simply an effective backdrop for an engaging and inventive production that was all about character. No-one sent up any of the characters, all the performers took their roles seriously, yet were clearly enjoying themselves, the comedy came from character, music and situation without any mugging or over-egging.

This was an Adina of real personality, brought out in the music, and Averina nicely took Adina on a journey. She was never nasty, but moved from being self-absorbed to something more admirable.

Elwin and Averina had a believably sparky relationship, from the outset they crackled and sparked together so that their crucial final scene together at the end of Act Two, made real sense and had a dramatic sparkle.

This Belcore was a wonderfully preening and self-absorbed man, clearly so enamoured of his own importance that he had no idea what was going on around him. Averina's Adina was clearly reluctantly mesmerised, and their scenes together were a complete delight. Such was Atkinson's engagement with the audience that when he got his comeuppance you felt like cheering.

Alex Jones was clearly having great fun as Dr Dulcamara, bringing out the character's knowingness. [His] hymning the praises of his elixir was a complete delight, but then Jones' whole performance was.

I loved the way Martin-Brandis had Harry Jacques' Claudio joining Lauretta and Giannetta in their over-the-top admiration for Nemorino when it becomes known that he is rich.”

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Michael White - The Catholic Herald (former chief critic for the Independent)

“A joy beyond all expectation - sassily delivered… outstandingly well sung”

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Claire Seymour - Opera Magazine

“Wild Arts’ sunny staging of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore confirmed that old adage, less is more.

[Elwin’s] sensitive interpretation of detail, musical and theatrical was telling. Nemorino’s transformation from gauche geek to dishevelled drunk, swigging from a magnum of ‘medicine’, was winningly done… No wonder everyone was delighted when Nemorino finally got his girl.

Galina Averina was a sassy Adina, her scarlet dress, and stilettos as sparkling as her light, sweet soprano. This was a wonderfully engaging performance. ‘Prendi, per me sei libero’ evinced genuine care and remorse.

A precise and dextrously choreographed small chorus.”

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Colin Clarke - Classical Explorer

“A positively life-enhancing performance of Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore in English with reduced ensemble by Wild Arts as part of their Summer Tour.”

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Dominic Dromgoole - former artistic director of The Globe Theatre

“A fresh and pungent delight. What you are achieving is remarkable”

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Robert Lloyd, international Bass

“Guido Martin-Brandis clearly has a real understanding of the possibilities of small-scale opera. His production of L’Elisir d’Amore for Wild Arts had a brilliance of imagination and stylistic confidence that was truly impressive and really enjoyable.”