A lemon sun
Munich, 25 may 2025 - For this new production, there is champagne instead of claret in Dulcamara’s bottles, and the show is all sparkles and wit. Belcanto with bubbles, a delight!
Martina Segna’s sets situates the action in Italy, what else: a giant lemon slice is the sun and Adina, a rich farm owner, is having a sunbath and reads a magazine, while her people sweat and work in the heat. A young farmer, Nemorino, watches her from afar and sighs his impossible love. The costumes by Frank Lichtenberg evoke the seventies - Adina is wearing the neonpink bathing suit and hot pants of the Barbies of our youth, while Nemorino in jeans and polo-shirt is modest and timeless, just like his love.
The village, where the major part of the action will take place, consists in large facades of torn cardboard: without taking itself too seriously, the sets show us a world of fakes. Nothing is taken sternly here, except love, but there is an ironic distance even here, we hear it every moment in the music. Michael Balke’s conducting is fluid, flexible, sensitive and intense. Changes of tempo and dynamic, everything is intense without exaggeration, just marvelous. As usual at the Gärtnerplatz, each singer is fantastic in their own right, just like the dancers and choir, but the particular charm of its shows lies in the notion of ensemble. We can feel that everyone on stage is feeling confident and at ease - and the energy that lies in this freedom makes the show particularly intense.
Adina has just told her people - and Nemorino - the story of Tristan and Isolt, when a company of soldiers arrive at the village. They come amidst washing lines with drying underpants and socks. Sergent Belcore makes his entry through the air, dressed in his uniform and boxers. Trousers or underpants, full of himself and his own importance, he instantly begins to court Adina. She rejects him, she is simply not interested. Andreja Zidaric as Adina is magnificent with her warm and strong voice. The belcanto passages enchant even the belcanto-sceptic, and her stage play is admirable. Haughty, disdainful, doubtful, finally a lover - she is credible at every moment. Dirk Schmeding’s stage direction is musical and very choreographic and still respectful of the singers: during the important scenes and airs, they are allowed to concentrate only on the singing. Thus the lovely Lucian Krasznec can abandon himself totally to his ‟Furtiva Lagrima”, explore its every nuance and give us goosebumps with his fine pianissimo. He is an adorable Nemorino, timid at first, funny after a goodish drink of the so-called love potion, passionate at last as he finally holds Adina in his arms.
Come to think of it, this story shows the power of the placebo effect long before the notion was even conceived: Nemorino buys a love potion that is really just wine. Certain of the effect of the potion, and maybe the wine also helps, he loses his bashfulness and acts as if he were indifferent to Adina. She wants to get back at him and quickly gets engaged to Belcore, the marriage is to take place the same day. Now Nemorino is in dire straits. The potion will take effect only the next day, so he turns to Dulcamara and asks for a second dose. Since he has no more money, he joins Belcore’s regiment for the deposit, for he would rather die after one day of Adina’s love than live his whole life without her. This sacrifice of course softens the beauty’s heart and she realises that in her heart of hearts she always loved him.
It’s the baritone machos who don’t evolve during the story. Dulcamara makes his entrance jumping out of a giant TV set, clad in a green sequined suit a la Elvis, complete with an open orange shirt and hairy chest. His only goal in life is quick money and his happy-end is the new business idea of selling wine for a love potion. (Scribe and Romani have written a comedy, but that doesn’t keep us from having a thought for a country where quackdom has been raised to the rank of raison d’état. Oh well…) Tonight Dulcamara is interpreted by bass baritone Alexander Grassauer, jaunty and pompous as they come, with a strong and versatile voice. The other baritone macho is Belcore, Nemorino’s rival. When he realises that the joke is on him, he will quickly state that there are thousands of girls waiting just for him. Ludwig Mittelhammer gives life to this ridiculous cockscomb, with his light and clear voice. We are eager to see him in a lied recital later this year.
When Nemorino finally turns out to be a rich heir, after his uncle’s death, the class differences are overcome - and they lived happily ever after.
The public is enthusiastic, applause greets every scene and air, and endless curtain calls and standing ovations celebrate the show at the end. Once more we leave in a happy mood, taking with us the image of a lemon sun and a few earworms as well.
