By Catherine Wendlandt
The Dallas Opera (TDO) kicks off its 2026/2027 Season with a new-to-Dallas production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love” on October 9, at the Winspear Opera House.
In Donizetti’s beloved 1832 comic opera, a hopeless romantic swoons for the town’s “it girl,” but she doesn’t even notice him. Along comes a traveling snake oil salesman with the perfect “magical elixir” to give him all his heart desires. But this potion is not all it was promised to be.
Photos courtesy of The Dallas Opera
“There is no warmer comedy in the operatic repertoire than ‘The Elixir of Love,’” director Stephen Lawless said. Inspired by Italian New Wave movies from the 1940s and 1950s, Lawless took a neo-realistic approach to this opera, setting it in post-World War II Italy. The guileless Nemorino becomes a car mechanic, Adina a schoolteacher and Belcore an American G.I.
The entire principal cast makes their Dallas Opera house debut in this production. Leading the cast are British Iranian coloratura soprano Soraya Mafi (pictured below) as the heart-breaking Adina and 2022 Operalia winner Anthony León in his professional role debut as Nemorino. The 2025 Operalia winner Mihai Damian is Belcore and 2025 TDO Lone Star Vocal Competition First Place and People’s Choice awards winner Kayla Nanto is Giannetta. Rounding out the cast is legendary Italian basso buffo Alessandro Corbelli.
Spanish conductor Guillermo García Calvo makes his house debut leading the cast and The Dallas Opera Orchestra and Chorus in the original score and libretto by Felice Romani, which will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.
“I am beyond excited to be making my debut at The Dallas Opera — and what a better way to arrive than with a love potion?” García Calvo said.
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