Athens, Ga. – Cable Channel 15, University of Georgia Cable, is set to broadcast the Feb. 14 performance of “The Elixir of Love” by UGA Opera Theatre and Opera Orchestra March 20, 21, 22 and 23 at 8 p.m. as well as March 22 and 23 at 2 p.m.
Premiered in Milan in 1832, “L’elisir d’amore” (“The Elixir of Love”) explores the effects of a magic potion upon the love triangle of the endearing rube Nemorino, rakish sergeant Belcore and wealthy beauty Adina.
This production features UGA students Joseph Michael Brent as Nemorino, Evan Tyor as Belcore, Elisabeth Slaten as Adina, Avery Draut as her friend Giannette, and Christopher Voss as Dr. Dulcamara, purveyor of the eponymous potion.
The production is set on a Georgia peach farm in the late 1930s and recasts Adina as the landowner, who has steered the farm through the Great Depression; Nemorino as an easy-going, starry-eyed farm worker; Belcore as a U.S. Army recruiting officer; and Dulcamara as a washed-up bootlegger.
The Valentine’s Day performance featured special guest conductor Maestro Imre Palló. Palló, who is the godson of composer Zoltán Kodály, was conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf prior to his American debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in 1973.
Jennifer Bakst, who has presented numerous theatre and opera productions in Germany and the U.K., served as guest stage director.
Frederick Burchinal, the Wyatt and Margaret Anderson Professor in the Arts in the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music, serves as director of the UGA Opera Theatre.
For more information, see http://www.ctl.uga.edu/channels.