OPERA Charm Magazine finally meets Teatro alla Scala. And we couldn’t have been happier about inaugurating what we hope will be a long beautiful friendship with a glorious last performance of Donizetti’s charming Elisir d’amore, with a spectacular cast. Teatro alla Scala opened for the public at its entire capacity of 2030 seats brings chills and happy tears in the eyes of each and every opera lover – this theater has its undeniable & inexplicable quelque chose that is addicting. 

The curtain raised and Tullio Pericoli’s scenes, prepared in 1998 for Teatro alla Scala – and still enchanting and actual – brought us in a cartoonish atmosphere, accompanied by Grischa Asagaro’s staging – simple, following entirely the score, with no twist, but still captivating. Less is more in some case and, with such a cast, the stage could have been empty and no one would have ever noticed this.

After the first performance, the tenor Paolo Fanale was replaced firstly by Francesco Meli & then by Vittorio Grigòlo for the last three performances (November 17th, 21st, 23th), who we had the great pleasure to listen to, despite an awful cold – a reference figure for Nemorino. As we can say La Scala is always La Scala… well, Grigòlo is and will always be Grigòlo. 

And the audience loves him unconditionally. Probably the most beautiful tenor voice of our times, Grigòlo is himself a character. A passional one, a stage animal that sometimes can become too much for the taste of the most traditionalist of us. Vocally wise, despite the health issues announced officially at the beginning of the performance, Grigòlo was, as always, a certainty. The length of the ovations after his Una furtiva lagrima said it all, but an encore would have been a fatigue for the conductor (and the orchestra) who had managed with difficulty to follow Grigòlo and his unexpected variations of the aria into an unique interpretation. Completely involved on stage, conturing both the melancholic & the drunk moments of Nemorino, Grigòlo has his own point of view about the score and he is not afraid to impose it. You either like it or not. And we certainly did like it.

Benedetta Torre. Sparkling as Adina for her so much deserved debut in Teatro alla Scala, the very young soprano who has already proved herself as a full package artist in Arena di Verona, as Sacerdotessa in Verdi’s Aida, conducted by M° Riccardo Muti, and as Despina in Così fan tutte at Teatro del Maggio (Florence). Even though there’s nothing that one critic her musically wise, Torre seems a very shy and technically focused artist at the beginning of the performance, so every time she shows another shade of her character – the seductive, the intelligent, the capricious, the loving, the mature sides of Adina -, she manages to surprise the audience. 

Coping perfectly with the dynamics imposed by Grigòlo on stage, Benedetta Torre has a brilliant career in front of her and after such performance we can’t help but wonder what’s coming next. 

The baritone Davide Luciano performed very convincingly the role of the sergeant Dulcamara.

Straight out from Rossini’s Il turco in Italia, also in La Scala, Giulio Mastrototaro performed Dottor Dulcamara. 

We were extremely excited to have on stage one of the protagonists of our Charming beginnings rubric, the soprano Francesca Pia Vitale performing Gianetta – charmingly, of course, as we had already assumed when we chose her for rubric, very present & noteworthy, both vocally & theatrically, in every intervention. 

Michele Gamba proposed the right tempi both the frenetic ensemble moments and for the more lyrical ones, such as the arias, always doing his best to keep under control the dialogue between the orchestra and the soloists, but also the huge amount of energy and unpredictability of Vittorio Grigòlo’s performance. Gorgeous performance of the Choir (prepared by Alberto Malazzi) and the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala. 

Emotional standing ovation for the last performance of the so much loved donizettian title, at Teatro alla Scala. Waiting breathlessly for the new season &, of course, for Davide Livermoor’s Macbeth, we hope to see you all soon at the theater!