Donizetti’s comic opera “L’Elisir d’Amore (The Elixir of Love)” is one of tenor Joshua Collier’s top-five operas. “Every aria, every duet, every ensemble is tuneful,” he said recently by phone. “Donizetti could spin a melody better than anyone. It’s all very accessible. It’s genuinely funny — unlike a lot of operas. It is romantic. It is charming. It is heartbreaking.”
Starring as Nemorino in the 2017 Opera Company of Middlebury production had such an effect on the young opera singer that he relocated, along with his wife and young daughter, from Boston to Brandon. “You really get invested in the story from the very beginning because you realize, even though they’re caricature, they’re real people,” Collier said. “Anybody who’s been in love, who’s had unrequited love, will definitely empathize with these characters. It’s a very human story — and nobody dies.”
