Picture Postcard Donizetti, Nightmarish Tchaikovsky

L'elisir d'amore and The Queen of Spades launch Garsington's summer

Oleksiy Palchykov (Nemorino) Picture © Richard Hubert-Smith; Aaron Cawley (Herman), Laura Wilde (Liza) Picture © Julian Guidera

My summer opera season could hardly have opened more propitiously than on a sun-drenched new production of Donizetti’s feel-good masterpiece, L’elisir d’amore at Garsington. It was staged by former Royal Shakespeare Company director Christopher Luscombe, whose tally of eminently revivable shows here and elsewhere grows apace.

Luscombe and his designer Simon Higlett transport us to an Italian piazza of picture-postcard authenticity - you can almost smell the ristretto being served at the alfresco café where Adina takes her prima colazione. The local landlady is a dedicated follower of 1950s fashions - judging by her eye-catching frocks, she has recently seen Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday - and she has the machinery to go with them: a smart little Vespa is her preferred mode of transport, while Dr Dulcamara causes a stir when he arrives in a scarlet sports car. This stylish updating looks simultaneously fresh and traditional: perfect for this piece and for Garsington’s audience.