This month, the Opera Company of Middlebury, Vermont’s professional opera company, tried something new: They brought Gaetano Donizetti’s beloved opera L’Elisir d’Amore (Elixir of Love) on a tour around the state! And, one of our team members was up on the stage…
This quirky and funny love story was set in a speakeasy in the 1920s and centered around a bartender’s “elixir” (aka alcohol) that was guaranteed to make people fall in love and was complete with stunning solo and choral numbers, period-appropriate costumes, and bartending tricks.
Among the talented cast was soprano Allison Steinmetz (pictured right, above), who works on our communications team by day and performs as a soloist in opera, oratorio and musical theater productions throughout the state by night! (Learn more about Allison here.)
Directed by Douglas Anderson, the show opened at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury, the opera company’s home venue. It then toured to three additional Vermont towns, playing at the Casella Theater at Castleton University, The Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro, and The Chandler Music Hall in Randolph. The tour was a great success with full audiences, standing ovations, and rave reviews. Perhaps the highlight was performing for hundreds of university students at Castleton University, many of whom who had never seen an opera before! By the end, they were on their feet cheering, asking for selfies with the artists, and posting comments on Facebook such as, “I absolutely loved it!” and “They were funny, OMG were they funny!”
students at Castleton University
Check out these video links of this zany opera here:
To learn more about the Opera Company of Middlebury and their upcoming season (to be announced soon!), visit www.ocmvermont.org.
