The Educator’s Guide to
L’Elisir d’Amore
By Gaetano Donizetti
A companion to the Student Guide HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE Opera offers a unique teaching opportunity, to explore the arts through many different disciplines including literature, art, history, and music. This guide has been designed to provide educators with suggestions on how to integrate the music and historical background of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore into the existing curricula. For applicable National Standards, please contact the Washington National Opera’s Education and Community Programs Department at 202.448.3465 or at education@dc-opera.org.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET THERE The dress rehearsal of L’elisir d’amore will begin promptly at 7:00 p.m. The Kennedy Center Opera House doors open 30 minutes prior to the start of the performance. Please plan to arrive early, as latecomers will be seated only at suitable breaks in the music, often not until intermission. Seating at Washington National Opera’s dress rehearsals is open. When you arrive, please have your passes ready to present to the ushers who will direct you to the area of the Opera House where you will be seated. The running time for this rehearsal of L’elisir d’amore is approximately two hours and 24 minutes, including one intermission.
YOUR ROLE IN THE OPERA Opera is a collaborative art. It requires the work of many people including the director, designer, singers, orchestra, technicians, crew, and the audience. The audience is an important part of every performance. Your role is to suspend disbelief and imagine that the story enacted before you is really happening; to let the action and music surround you, and to become part of the show. To help your students feel comfortable with their role as opera-goers, Washington National Opera has prepared some tips for performance etiquette. Please review What Do We Wear? And Other Stuff… (in the Student Guide) with your students. By following these guidelines, everyone will have a positive experience!
THE STORY Language Arts: Felice Romani (librettist) never wrote his own stories, but used current stories that were already written and adapted them into libretti for opera. Have students take a current or popular story and adapt it into their own opera libretto. Language Arts: Adina reads the story of Tristan and Isolde to the villagers at the beginning of the opera. Discuss with your class other examples of stories within stories (like Tristan and Isolde in L’elisir d’amore) and why many authors chose to use this technique to help tell their story. For instance, why does Shakespeare put the play Pyrimus and Thisbe inside his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream?