Donizetti lowers curtain on BoV Opera Festival

The second performance of L'Elisir d'Amore by Gaetano Donizetti at the Manoel Theatre, in Valletta, today, will conclude this year's 8th edition of yet another successful BOV Opera Festival 2007.

Maltese tenor Charles Vincenti's debut at the festival started off on a high note on Monday as his rendition in the main role of Nemorino won the hearts of the audience that packed the theatre on the first night.

The production, the fruit of collaboration between Operalaboratorio, of Palermo, and the Manoel Theatre, was under the artistic direction of Elizabeth Smith.

Mr Vincenti appeared next to a small group of well-established soloists from Operalaboratorio, namely Caterina Ilardo in the role of Adina, Marco Filippo Romano as Dulcamara, Giovanni Bellavia as Belcore and Claudia Munda in the role of Giannetta.

L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir Of Love) is an Italian comic opera in two acts based on an Italian libretto by Felice Romani after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber's Le philtre (1831).

L'Elisir d'Amore was premiered at the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan, on May 12, 1832 and is considered one of the most frequently performed of all Donizetti's operas.

Set in a small Italian village, L'Elisir d'Amore is about Nemorino, a poor peasant who is in love with Adina, a beautiful landowner who is indifferent to Nemorino's feelings for her. The plot develops in a whole array of comical misunderstandings until, both protagonists end up falling for each other again.