Elixir of Love for Families

Kids like movies, and San Francisco Opera's Education department brings us the perfect film to introduce children to the magic of opera. Created from the Opera's stage production of Donizetti's Elixir of Love for Families in 2008, this one-hour movie is a delightful comedy about the course of true love made smooth by a "magic" potion. It is set in Napa Valley circa 1915, and sung in English, with English subtitles.

Meet the main characters:

• Adina, a young, rich girl from the country (soprano)
• Nemorino, a poor farmer, in love with Adina (tenor)
• Sergeant Belcore, a visiting soldier (baritone)
• Dr. Dulcamara, a traveling quack doctor (basso buffo)
• Giannetta, a village girl (soprano)

And here's the plot (according to the Education Department's resource page): Shy simple boy falls in love with popular well-read slightly snobby girl who loves to be the center of attention but isn’t interested in settling down. Girl is impressed by muscular new guy in town and flirts with him even though she isn’t interested in him. A smooth-talker con artist sells the boy a phony solution to cure his shyness. The boy, believing it’s working, becomes more confident. Newly confident boy pretends not to care for girl, who punishes him by offering to marry the muscular guy.

Now desperate, the boy does what he can to buy more of the solution from the con artist. (This involves making a deal with the muscular guy.) In the end, girl is moved by boy’s heart so much that she reverses the boy’s deal with the muscular guy; and boy and girl marry. Throughout the story, a crowd of onlookers responds to each event.

Teachers, parents, and homeschoolers will want to take advantage of the great resource materials they've developed including curriculum connections, games, and information written exactly for this age group.