love potion

She sang a few lively covers of classics from what she called her “rock ’n’ roll dancing days” — “Love Potion No. 9,” “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” — but closed with what she introduced as a “Frank Sinatra song,” “Young at Heart.”

The part in which characters play Tristan and Isolde doesn’t quite land, for instance: A relationship built on a mythical love potion isn’t an ideal point of comparison for a modern couple.

The baritone Davide Luciano was suave as the conceited army sergeant Belcore; as the quack doctor Dulcamara, who provides the cheap wine that Nemorino takes as a love potion, the baritone Ambrogio Maestri was robust without being over-the-top.

Amber Wagner was a first-rate Brangäne, powerful but nuanced; she is a prime mover in the plot for secretly providing Tristan and Isolde with the fateful love potion.

Captured by the knight Tristan as a trophy bride for his surrogate father King Marke, Isolde is consumed by rage throughout the first act — until she and Tristan are swept away by a love potion Isolde unintentionally serves in her attempt to poison him.