Film

Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore

Name: Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore
Genre: Music, Comedy
Released: 2012
Cast: Anna Netrebko, Matthew Polenzani, Mariusz Kwiecien, Ambrogio Maestri, Anne-Carolyn Bird

A radiant 2012 Metropolitan Opera production of Donizetti's comic masterpiece about a lovesick peasant boy who believes a charlatan's potion will win him the woman of his dreams. Fizzing with charm and humor, it glides between farce and genuine feeling. For anyone curious about opera but wary of heavy tragedy: this is where to start.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you find pleasure in great singing, and in a romantic comedy built on stage business, sly timing and a quack selling his wares with relish.

Skip it if you want the naturalistic pace and camera intimacy of screen drama, since this is a filmed stage production where the artifice stays visible and plot moves in singing set pieces.

What it asks of you: Its shape is leisurely and sung rather than spoken, running just under two and a half hours of convention, broad physical comedy and arias to settle into.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Marriage of Figaro1994

Mozart's comic genius in coruscating form—witty, ingenious, impossibly alive. Shares L'elisir's gift for humor that doesn't diminish the humanity underneath.

But Denser plot with more characters to track. The comedy lands in the construction itself, not in spectacle or broad performance.

A Little Night Music1977

Sondheim and Ingmar Bergman collaborate on a romantic comedy where love is complicated and funny and genuine all at once. The same tonal balance as L'elisir, with a sensuous Swedish summer mood.

But Much less sung than opera—more spoken narrative. If you're here for voice and music, this will feel like a retreat into theater.

Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier2014

Strauss's sprawling, gorgeous comedy of manners and romantic confusion. Utterly charming, musically lavish, and it shares L'elisir's belief that opera can be genuinely funny without condescension.

But Nearly four hours long and structurally baroque. The plot doesn't move in straight lines, and patience is essential.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Chorus Line1985

Both are about longing and transformation, both move with infectious joy, and both believe in the power of collective performance to illuminate human truth.

A completely different art form—the filmed stage musical, not opera—but it has the same breathless energy and genuine affection for its characters. Like L'elisir, it's about people reaching for something just beyond their grasp, told with humor and style.

But Resolutely American vernacular, with spoken dialogue and contemporary pop sensibility. The register is intimate and naturalistic, the opposite of operatic grandeur.

Falstaff1979

Verdi's only comedy, about an aging rogue. Fast, clever, with orchestral energy that never stops moving. The ensemble finale rivals anything in L'elisir for sheer theatrical joy.

But Requires familiarity with Shakespeare's Merry Wives. If you don't know the story, the rapid-fire satire can feel opaque.

The Barber of Seville1944

Rossini's masterpiece of opera buffa: fizzing, virtuosic, and perpetually breathless. If you love L'elisir's speed and airiness, this is the place to go deeper into the tradition.

But The vocal writing is brutally demanding—the performances have to match superhuman technical standards or the piece collapses.

The Tales of Hoffmann1951

Offenbach's fantastical three-act mystery about a poet's love across different worlds. Visually inventive and strangely moving beneath its theatrical surfaces—darkly comic where L'elisir is sunny.

But Genuinely unsettling at times. The tone whiplashes between farce and existential dread, which not everyone finds appealing.

The Metropolitan Opera: Hansel and Gretel2008

Humperdinck's fairy-tale opera brings childhood wonder to the stage with genuine humor, lush music, and a darker edge. Shares L'elisir's ability to enchant without being precious.

But Written for a German tradition of Christmas opera. If you're not in the mood for something storybook-like, it will feel slight.

The Metropolitan Opera: Hansel and Gretel poster

The Phantom of the Opera1989

Both center on a magical transformation of self through the intervention of someone outside the ordinary world—the elixir vendor and the Phantom are cousins beneath the surface.

Lloyd Webber's sung-through musical about obsession and beauty. Where L'elisir is sunlit and generous, this is shadowed and baroque, but both are propelled by romantic yearning and visual spectacle.

But Melodramatic and overwrought in ways that can feel dated. The emotional register is operatic without the vocal tradition to support it.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street2007

Both are narrative musicals where singing is the primary storytelling device and character development lives in the music itself, not around it.

Sondheim's darkest musical: a sung tale of vengeance and appetite set in Victorian London. Operatic in structure and ambition, but in a minor key—it has L'elisir's theatrical intelligence applied to horror and moral degradation.

But Violent, grotesque, and genuinely disturbing. The tone is bleak and the story ends catastrophically. This is not escapist entertainment.