Quanto è bella, quanto è cara (L'elisir d'amore)

Donizetti had six weeks. The Teatro della Cannobiana in Milan needed a new opera for the spring of 1832, and Felice Romani adapted Scribe's libretto for Auber's Le philtre; Donizetti altered it substantially, adding Una furtiva lagrima and the duet Chiedi all'aura lusinghiera. The premiere on 12 May 1832 began a success that did not fade: between 1838 and 1848 this was the most frequently performed opera in Italy. The comedy rests on an ordinary deception — a quack sells wine as a love potion — and the score treats its foolish tenor with a tenderness the joke does not require.