Amsterdam.(L'Elisire d'amour)

Bryn Terfel has often drawn inspiration from the career of his fellow Welshman Geraint Evans in assuming such roles as Figaro, Leporello and Falstaff. The late bass-baritone likely would have been surprised if he had seen Terfel's debut in another of his signature roles, Dulcamara in L'Elisir d'Amore. In the Netherlands Opera's new production (seen Dec. 3), Evans might not have recognized the opera at all, apart from Donizetti's score, which was not given its deserved prominence here. With an uninspired Gabriele Ferro conducting the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the score's wit and charm became dull and sloppy, and music that breathes the atmosphere of eternal youth sounded stale and tired. But the conductor was not completely to blame: he couldn't have found much inspiration onstage.

Belgian director Guy Joosten, who seems convinced that the story of a conventional opera has to be updated to please a modern audience, turned Donizetti's delightful comedy into a complete farce, far beyond the Marx Brothers. The scene was a movie set somewhere in a desert between Hollywood and Las Vegas; Giannetta and the other village girls became a script girl and assistants to an invisible director. From the desert sands popped up various props, including a bathtub of which, for no apparent reason, Nemorino and Adina availed themselves (though not at the same time). Nemorino, a middle-aged farmer in shorts, was ...