Not many singers, let alone opera singers, can pack them in at 1,500 cinemas in 40 countries to watch a live broadcast. But then not all singers are Bryn Terfel.
The remarkable pulling power of the great bass baritone came home to me in the interval of this revival of Laurent Pelly’s joyous 2007 staging, updated to an economically downbeat but full of life post-war Italy.
While this take on Donizetti’s feel good comedy L’Elisir d’amore is mercifully short of intellectual gimmicks, being a modern sort of chap I posted on Facebook how much I was enjoying the show with its thoroughly charming telling of the love story of rich Adina and peasant Nemorino.
Back came a comment from the Torch Theatre in Milford Haven that they had a full house watching the fun - from Terfel as the quack Dulcamara arriving in a rundown truck with fold down sides to sell his dodgy elixir, the cute dog that raced across the stage, Adina sunning herself under a huge parasol on the side of the hay bales to her pompous officer suitor turning up with two soldiers, one too tall and the other too short.
The telling is a little light on the contrast between rich and poor, as penniless peasant Nemorino takes the love potion to win the heart of rich landowner Adina but, hey, this is a merry comic romp, complete in second half with a tractor crashing into the wedding party, that cannot but bring a smile to the face in this over-intellectualised world.
Yet with this marvellous cast and conducted by Daniele Rustioni, Donizetti’s bel canto caper was most enjoyable for the singing and playing.
Vittorio Grigolo, making his house debut as Nemorino, brought a youthful sprightliness to the acting, matched with singing that ran the spectrum of silliness to pure emotion when it really mattered with the show stopping Una furtiva lagrima.
He was well-matched by a gorgeous Lucy Crowe who acted and sang a feisty and fun Adina with a clear, bright soprano that was magical for the music.
The young Terfel was singing in eisteddfodau in Snowdonia when another great Welshman was on this stage singing Dulcamara and I doubt whether any other Welsh singer since Sir Geraint Evans has had as much an impact on international audiences.
Terfel makes light work of the patter requirements and other vocal requirements of the role. What sets him apart is the ease in anything that he selects combined with just splendid comic timing.
Here as a rather grubby quack doctor Terfel somehow manages to create a character who is both rather seedy and exploitative but hugely likeable. Whatever was in his elixir, I’ll have some of that please.
Hungarian Levente Molnár (another singer who, like Terfel, failed to take the title in Cardiff Singer of the World) was a little swamped dramatically by the presence of the great one but as Belcore his 50s Italian macho swaggers and bottom pinching ridiculousness got the laughs.
There are further performances at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden on November 29 and December 4, 9 & 13 and there's a performance on BBC Radio 3 on November 29 at 6.50pm
