The Toledo Opera is getting ready to uncork Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore (Elixir of Love), an opera about spirits: snake oil cure-alls, magic potions, and about how a little bubbly can lead to love.
This goes for the tenor hero who is after the girl of his dreams, and the girl, who doesn’t even know she’s in love until she too is hit by the elixir’s spell.
The music in the show, which is to be staged at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 and 2 p.m. Feb.15 at the Valentine Theatre, is also intoxicating, bubbly, and spirited.
While the opera, written over six weeks in 1832, has aged incredibly well, much has changed in mixology over the last 194 years. Can local celebrities and guests with varied backgrounds mix up a little magic of their own, help the local opera company distill a few dollars, and perhaps whet the whistles of people for a sip of opera without a hangover later?
Those questions, and more, will be answered with the TOA’s Top Shelf Competition: A Cocktail Competition of Operatic Proportions taking place 7 p.m. Friday at the Registry Bistro Ballroom in downtown Toledo.
The competition is concocted by the opera’s new Audience Development Committee.
“Top Shelf is a takeoff on Top Chef,” said Kate French, committee co-chair. Four teams of two people each will try to create the audience’s favorite cocktail, distill funds for Toledo Opera, and just have fun.
Celebrity mixologists include Dan Cummins, WTOL anchor; Abby Arnold, deputy mayor of Toledo; Jessica Crossfield, owner/founder of Handmade Toledo; Angela Lucas, owner/founder of TolHouse; Tony Krncevic, “Car & Coffee Guy”; and Dan Kleiboemer, merchant marine captain.
The teams, French said, won’t know their challenges until they draw out of a hat to see which of the main liquors their team will be assigned.
“They'll have either gin, tequila, vodka, or bourbon,” French said.
Other ingredients will be available too: juices, fruits, berries, herbs, garnishes salts, “and neat things to add to the drink,” French said.
The teams will have 30 minutes to assemble the samples for the guests, who will “vote” for the best cocktail by tipping, which will then be donated to the opera.
The winner will not only get bragging rights but a trophy to boot.
Guests will pay $60 per person to enjoy the evening, which will include music, featuring the opera’s beautiful tenor aria, “Una Furtiva Lagrima (A secret tear)” sung by TOA resident artist Brady DelVecchio, and baritone Rick Hale will emcee.
There will be other music as well as a grazing station of Registry food, mocktails, and a wine bar, provided by TOA artistic director Kevin Bylsma, from his personal collection.
“I don’t know if it’s a collection per se, but I'm donating three cases of wine for the event,” Bylsma said in an email.
For oenophiles, he wrote, “The whites and rosés are mostly American wines — chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, but the reds are from my modest cellar. I purchase mostly mid-priced French and Italian reds from good producers and then age them in my Old West End "Michigan-style" basement.”
The reds are some Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas, Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Brunello from 2014-2022 vintages.
But the opera is fielding its own team, tenor David Walton, who is making his debut as the lovesick Nemorino in L’Elisir D’Amore, and J. Ernest Green, its conductor.
In the opera, Nemorino is pining for Adina, sung by Marnie Breckenridge, the lovely landowner of the farm on which he and others work. Intrigued by the story she reads about Tristan and Isolde and the love potion they imbibe, Nemorino begs the traveling salesman, Dr. Dulcamara (Jason Budd), for a love potion. The good doctor slaps a label on a bottle of Bordeaux, and voila, sells it to our hero. Add conceited Sergeant Belcore (Robbie Raso), as Nemorino’s rival, and a rich, dead uncle, to the plot, give it a shake, and hijinks and pathos ensue.
“This music is glorious,” Green said. “Nobody dies, and nobody’s sick. You couldn't ask for a better time for this opera because it's very light, it's very fun. You kind of can't avoid having a good time.”
The maestro said he always has fun when he comes to Toledo to work, which he often does, but conducting a cocktail concoction at a competition takes it to a whole new level.
“How much fun is this,” Green said. ”You know, I was sort of telling somebody you come in to do an opera, and you get to go to a cocktail party and make drinks. How much fun is that? I mean, come on, really?”
Green says don’t expect any Tom Cruise moves ala the movie Cocktail.
“Sadly, I will not look like Tom Cruise flipping the bottles in the air and catching them,” he said. “I tend to be pretty good at Manhattans, martinis, things like that.
“The only experience I have is in my own kitchen when I don't need to drive later.”
But he has a secret weapon.
“I brought a little bit of Maryland with me up here,” he said. “So, depending upon what ingredients I get, I'm gonna put a little Maryland flair into it.”
He prefers not to name this ingredient, but he added, “If you know, you just know.”
Teammate Walton said he likes to keep things simple.
“My favorite cocktail is an Old Fashioned,” the tenor said. “Sometimes I'll change things up and get a Manhattan or a Negroni.”
As this is the first time to perform Nemorino, Walton has never been in a cocktail competition either. But he, like his teammate, is prepared.
“I've got like four ideas,” he said.
He said a cocktail works out best for him if it has a minimal number of ingredients.
“It’s better for me if it's three ingredients or less,” Walton said. “It's always good to keep it simple. Just like Nemorino.”
One drink he’s thinking about is a gin cocktail called the Suffering Bxxxxxd. If it’s Bourbon, then he’s looking at a Bordeaux sour, again relating to his operatic role. Then there’s a salute to Dr. Dulcamara called the Snake Oil Margarita, and to honor Italy, he is thinking about adding an Italian twist to vodka with some pinot.
This is Walton’s second time performing in Toledo. He was first in Toledo for Gioachino Rossini’s La Cenerentola in 2023.
The new Audience Engagement Committee has lots of other ideas after this inaugural event to link the community to a production by the Toledo Opera. But the goal isn’t only to sell tickets or raise funds for the company.
“As far as audience, all are welcome, whether you're new to opera or whether you've been a part of Toledo opera for decades,” said Rachael Cammarn, director of marketing and communication. “I think that the committee's charge overall is friend-raising. We're hoping to make new friends with this event.”
Making friends, yes, but also trying to introduce opera to a broader audience.
“So we want to kind of just raise awareness of opera and make people feel comfortable, coming to the opera, make it a fun, new, exciting thing to do rather than a stuffy, event that might not be for them,” said co-chair Dominique Lash.
Not only to break down the stereotypes, she added, “but to also engage people that have maybe not had the opportunity to be exposed to the opera.”
Lash, also a trustee, said that the TOA has been trying to do that for years.
“I just feel like this audience development is to engage a broader audience. We focus on community engagement, education, and outreach.”
Tickets are $60 a piece and can be purchased online at toledoopera.org.
In the meantime, bottoms up!
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