Good Things Come to Those Who Weep: Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore

“L’Elisir d’Amore” — “The Elixir of Love” — is what’s known as an opera buffa , or comic opera. That means that we’re in for a happy ending. But Donizetti knows that the payoff is only earned through the suffering of his protagonists. In one pivotal moment, our hero Nemorino glimpses his beloved shedding a single tear — and he concludes (crazily, but correctly) that it can only mean that she loves…