Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore Returns to the Met, Opening 3/5

A trio of international stars will sing the leading roles in a revival of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, opening March 5. Juan Diego Flórez will sing his first Met performances of Nemorino, the simple country boy who falls in love with the beautiful Adina, sung by Diana Damrau in her house role debut. Mariusz Kwiecien adds a new role to his Met repertory as Belcore, Adina's posturing fiancé, and Alessandro Corbelli reprises his acclaimed interpretation of Dulcamara, the traveling quack whose phony love potion creates real romantic intrigue among the three characters. Donato Renzetti returns to the Met for the first time in more than 20 years to conduct this revival of John Copley's colorful 1991 production.

Nemorino will be Flórez's eighth role at the Met. Last season, he sang the title role in the Met premiere of Rossini's Le Comte Ory. The tenor has also starred in the new production premieres of Rossini's IL Barbiere di Siviglia, Bellini's La Sonnambula, and Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment and Don Pasquale, and revivals of Rossini's La Cenerentola and L'Italiana in Algeri. Damrau, who sang Countess Adèle in last season's Le Comte Ory premiere, has performed at the Met in a varied repertory encompassing stratospheric coloratura roles, such as Zerbinetta in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos and Mozart's Queen of the Night, as well as bel canto heroines, including the title characters in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and La Fille du Régiment. This season, she also reprises one of her most popular interpretations, Rosina in IL Barbiere di Siviglia.  Earlier this season, Kwiecien overcame a dramatic last-minute back injury to sing the title role in Michael Grandage's new production of Don Giovanni. A graduate of the Met's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Kwiecien made his Met debut as Kuligin in a 1999 performance of Janá?ek's Kát'a Kabanová and has since sung nearly 150 performances at the Met. He has most frequently appeared as Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème, Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, and Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte. He has starred in three new production premieres at the Met, singing Dr. Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale (2006), Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor (2007), and Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen (2009). In 2007, he sang Belcore in Act II of L'Elisir d'Amore as part of a gala performance.