Center Stage Opera opened their 2007-8 season last night with a return to Donizetti that was nothing short of triumphant. “L’eliser d’amore” builds on top of their 2005 production of “Lucia di Lammermoor”, and their use for some years now of the famous sextet from the second act of that glorious work as an encore stand-by in many of their various concert performances, giving them serious consideration for the title of the premiere Donizetti company at work today anywhere.

The pleasures are so many and so solid in this extraordinary production that simply listing them in chronological order would take the entire evening. The soloists are energetic, mature singer-actors whose talent in both categories is world-class; the ensemble work may be the best I have ever seen in any live operatic production; the orchestra is simply superb, under a maestro who simply soars; the direction and design elements are wildly creative and original and simultaneously so true to Donizetti that one feels the breath of the composer in the air of the auditorium as he laughs and cries to see and hear his work done with such imagination and justice.

The concept can be credited to longtime Center Stage Opera stage director Dylan F. Thomas, who also capably designs both sets and lighting, not to mention tripling (quadrupling?) as an uncredited choral member in a role that embodies the production concept—as the main support for the alpha-male of the football team—but I get ahead of myself. Simply put, the production concept is to bring the 19th century class-politics and militaristic jingo-ism of small-town proto-Italia right into our own 1980s, replete with MTV, valley-speak, Reagan-era wealth-worship, and material-girl hairstyles and costume/accessor-izations.

And it works brilliantly. From the Miami-Vice undercover sting operation, to the nerd-geek’s tru-luv idolization of the heroine, a Cyndi-Lauper-modeled original-girl-who-wants-to-have-fun... from the karaoke-ification of the 2nd act salon’s set-piece, and the transformation of the town’s arch-duelist/local bully into the captain of the football team, to the inspired metamorphosis of the mountebank-quack into a drug-dealing sleaze, the entire production brims with sparkling inventory, over-flowing the watcher’s imagination with its sheer brio and chutzpah.

And yet, and yet—and here the work of Maestro Brian Onderdock cannot be given enough praise—Donizetti’s very real belief in the power of love, and his placement of that belief in his main character’s mouth—in terms both poetic and musical—is the real conqueror in this brief operatic interlude, in this piece of classical music, and in this very deeply radical production. While the presence of love seeps throughout the music of the duelist/football captain, the mountebank/dealer, and it virtually flows like perspiration from the nerd/geek’s every pore, it is in the music and character of everybody’s target, Adina, the material-girl of this story, that its deepest insights and rhythms come to life.

Shira Renee Thomas, the central star of Center Stage Opera, plays the role, and in her hands, the voice of Adina dominates the story, the stage, and all of the music of the work. Thomas throws herself physically into the role, dancing under her Cyndi-Lauper-punk hairdo like her decade is once and for always the “Now-Decade”; like that MTV camera was invented to cover her every move; like fun may not be the only thing girls want, but it’ll do until something better comes along. And what does come along—insight, wisdom and love—comes through the thrills and vibratos of her voice and her music, and indeed, it is better. Adina knows this, from the start—that status, elixirs, and magic are just shabby substitutes—very poor ones indeed—for real human love, for real relationships, and for deep, irreplaceable caring. Donizetti, on his way to his undeserved, tragic early death in the madhouse, knew it. Lucia learns it in her opera, and Adina knows it here. Through the enormous talent and brilliant work of Ms. Thomas, we share that insight also, and are better people for having had the experience.

Matthew Edwardsen, as the nerd/geek/tenor Nemorino, essaying a singing role that has famously brought all three of The Three Tenors to their knees, sings with grace and ease, accomplishing every highest note as if it were the most natural of expressions. He holds the stage both musically and as an actor with Ms. Thomas, a shining partner for this star, adding Nemorino to a list of accomplishments which already includes Romeo to Ms. Thomas' Juliette and Alfredo to her Violetta.

As the Milos Gloriosus of this production, baritone Eric Carampatan embodies the testosterone-poisoned, totally self-dedicated, ego-driven Belcore. His physical presence is always both very funny and a little scary—as it should be. He plays his role with verve and sensitivity, bringing warmth and surprising delicacy to what in other, more well-known hands, is usually handled dismissively, as a buffoon or clown.

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