The Elixir of Love – Wilton’s Music Hall

Xavier Hetherington and Matthew Kellett in The Elixir of Love at Wilton’s Music Hall, London. Picture: Craig Fuller

The Elixir of Love continues at Wilton’s Music Hall, London until 19 September 2026.

Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩

Donizetti’s classic bel canto opera lands in a quintessentially English village in this Waterperry Opera Festival production in association with Charles Court Opera, with costumes and sets by Ceci Calf.

A candy-striped maypole stands proudly centre stage, its ribbons spreading luxuriously to the gallery. The shiny green grass of the village green has not been parched by our burning summer, and a notice board announces a cricket match between USAF and the RAF, hinting at the military action to come. The maypole is creatively used as both a traditional maypole and, at times, a pole-dancing pole. However, it is still a big pole bang in the middle of a small set and takes some working around, bizarrely, at times, even blocking singers from view. When the hero finally gets his girl, it redeems itself by gloriously lighting up.

David Eaton’s punchy, very English adaptation brings Donizetti’s hastily written 1832 masterpiece bang up to date, and John Wilkie’s direction leaves no joke unturned. Dulcamara makes his magic potions from cider, not wine; he also has a mortgage to pay, and wealthy Addie/Adina has a chocolate factory. Much to the audience’s delight, apples are a running gag throughout the show. Dulcamara turns them into colourful toffee apples, Brad/Belcore and Norman/Nemorino have an apple fight, and fun is had by all when the chocolate and cider are finally brewed together.

An unwell Matthew Kellett still manages to steal the show as a charismatic and filthy white-coated Dulcamara. His bass baritone voice is as gleaming as the twinkle in his eye as he peddles his spurious colourful test tubes of potions: “I take any form of payment.”

Xavier Hetherington is a dramatically sympathetic but vocally over-loud Nemorino. His voice dominates every ensemble he is in, to the point that some of Donizetti’s glorious ensemble numbers sound like tenor solos. Wilton’s Music Hall is not a big space for operatic voices, as its name suggests; it was built for Victorian music hall entertainment and would have resonated with the sounds of the popular songs of the day, all sung without microphones.

A lower volume would have helped him blend with Madeline Robinson’s appropriately light-voiced Addie/Adina.  Robinson is an excellent and packs meaning into every note of Donizetti’s florid writing, but often at the expense of vocal fluidity. However, her singing in the Act I finale is sumptuous.

James Geidt is a vocally solid and wonderfully pompous Brad/Belcore as he spits insults such as ‘maggot’ to Norman/Nemorino. All the action has a magical feel, bathed in Jake Wiltshire’s atmospheric lighting.

Music director Eaton’s valiant piano playing accompanies it all. He does a wonderful job, but no pianist can create the same effect as a haunting oboe solo or muted strings.

So what is opera or musical theatre? If the most important things for you are flawless ensembles and soaring lines, then this is not the show for you. If you want a fun night with great tunes and a comic story engagingly told, then get on down to The Elixir of Love at Wilton’s Music Hall.

Effie Gray