Love is a Mysterious Confection... or Concoction

What is love? Seems a simple enough question. I mean, instinctively we know what love feels like, it's the core of our being. But do we know what love is... chemically? It's an old ponderment, the kind that spurs poets and painters to create lasting works -- and musicians, let's not forget musicians... opera composers! Thoughts of love are meat and drink to them. Speaking of drinks, here's one about which an entire opera was written: The Elixir of Love (L'Elisir d'Amore), by one Mister Gaetano Donizetti in the nineteenth century; still relevant today, which just goes to show you, love is eternal. According to this opera, there is actually a tonic that can make love happen. What a wonderful, mysterious concoction. We want some.

As part of the San Francisco Opera Center's 2010 Merola Opera Program calendar, two alternating casts of brilliant young singers are at this very moment in the midst of performances of "Elixir," and we were lucky enough to attend the opening performance just a couple of evenings hence. Nemorino, the innocent, lovesick tenor, eventually wins heart and hand of Adina, the most popular gal in town, supposedly by quaffing said elixir (we know otherwise, but we follow along because the music is SO pretty, and the singers are SO talented, and the production is SO engaging). This is one of the most popular bel canto operas -- it's all about pretty singing, as the phrase implies -- in this one nobody gets sick or dies, nobody even gets hurt, and all voices are raised in mellifluous harmony. Every now and again it's really pleasant to soak in such stuff.

At the end of the evening, as if the delights of the opera and production were not sufficient, a gentle shower of cut-paper "bottles" {see image} rained down on the center section of the theater. We were given our own bottles of elixir! How sweet is that?

Of course we drank ours right away (we have excellent imaginations)... Can't begin to solve the mystery that is love, but it's very nice to drink the elixir, even if only through our eyes and ears, all the same. Cheers! xo, Trixie