L’elisir d’amore

Description

L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) is a melodramma giocoso (opera buffa) in two acts by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto, after Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's Le philtre (1831). The opera premiered on 12 May 1832 at the Teatro della Canobbiana in Milan.

Written in a six-week period, L'elisir d'amore was the most often performed opera in Italy between 1838 and 1848 and has remained continually in the international opera repertory. Today it is one of the most frequently performed of all Donizetti's operas. The opera contains the popular tenor aria “Una furtiva lagrima”, a romanza that has a considerable performance history in the concert hall.