[ applause ] [ applause ] hello. come stand with me. thank you. here i am! here he is. all right. well, he was so drunk by the end of -- i have a severe hangover right now, actually. my head is pounding. well bravi to the two of you. now, you two have performed together all over the world, and you're such a great team. why do you like singing together? anna, you tell us. well, how can you not like to sing with matthew? honestly. he's such a nice, nice wonderful colleague, and extremely talented and very professional. and we did "elisir" together a year ago. we did already. in munchen. that's right, that's right. we had fun then. and working with anna is impossible, right? no, it's the worst. i mean, the worst ever. no. it is -- i have to say, as big a diva as you could be in our world, you are the most down-to-earth, regular, awesome person, and a great colleague. and i love singing with you, so it's good, yeah. all right, all right, all right. [ laughter ] this production takes a somewhat more serious approach to the action than is often in the case with productions of "elisir." what makes it different? well, i like it that we address the piece as a human drama that comes with comedic side. you know, i mean we're like two real people trying to work out something you know, serious between the two of us. and, uh, i don't know, i like it that it's more human that way. yeah, it was idea of bart. he doesn't want to make it like traditional, silly, "woo-hoo, 'elisir'." and we, actually, was very much with him about that. let's make it -- well, it's still funny it's still "elisir." but let's make it little bit more real little bit -- a little bit more modern. well, you just mentioned your director, bart sher. and he has you playing nemorino as less of a buffoon. for sure. and more of a poet. this approach seems to suit you. oh, i like it. i mean -- but it's just, it's just much easier to play. it's easy to -- easy to get in touch with as a guy who's -- he's got real issues and he's trying to solve 'em rather than just kinda bumbling along and hoping that things are going to work out, do you know what i mean? it's very interesting. well, anna, you are a regular of the met hd transmissions, but our audiences are more used to seeing you in tragic roles than comic ones like today. now, i know that you're very particular about the roles you choose. why do you like singing adina? i don't know; i'm singing this for over 10 years, and, uh, i just love the role. i like the girl. besides, of course i like donizetti music. but i like the girl. i think she's -- yeah, she's the real thing, yeah. well, matthew, we just have a few more seconds but can you tell me, in the next act, you have, of course, one of the most famous tenor arias in the opera world. oh, yeah, what was it? "una furtive lagrima." now, everyone from caruso to pavarotti have sung it here onstage at the met. when you're about to sing this gorgeous melody what is going through your mind? well, i'm channeling you know pavarotti and caruso and all those guys. no, that's a joke, dear. you know, i tell you what i'm thinking about -- no, what i'm thinking about is really the fact that she cried. she cried when she saw all this going on around me all these girls who were interested. she cried -- this is a huge thing for him and that's what spur-- what causes "una furtiva" to happen. no, it's true, you're thinking "should i sing encore or not?" yeah. [ all laughing ] that happens, too. well, thank you very much. good luck with the big aria and have a great second act. thank you. take care. now i'm going to speak with bartlett sher, the director of this new production. this is the fourth opera in all, and third bel canto comedy that bart has directed for the met, after "the barber of seville" and "le comte ory." hello, bart. hi, how are you? i'm well, thank you. "l'elisir d'amore" is incredibly popular and has been produced so many times. how is your production different from others? um, well, they were starting to explain it. i, uh, i think i probably entered it more as a romance than a comedy. i think the -- the way that i enjoyed it, i'd seen every kind of weird production you could ever see, set in all kinds of places. and it always felt like they strained to make it funny. and it seemed that the more it was on the side of a romance between two people then the comedy could sorta hook on the spine of that. and i could, you know, allow it to be funny behind that. but as they rightly said you know i was looking for the truthfulness. and it seemed, in the lines, they had a bit of a history, these two, so i thought i'd pursue it. well, it works very much so. anna and matthew have such great chemistry as do anna and mariusz. and what are they really like in the rehearsal room? well, what always happens when you're doing an opera and you're taking a slightly different approach is there's always the first few days are, like kind of reorienting everybody. "well, when i did it here..." yeah, yeah, reorienting everybody toward what we -- what i'm looking at. so, that was -- that's part one. um, generally, what's great about opera singers, they know the thing so well that they're, like 12 steps ahead of you. and so, they bring an enormous exuberance to it. uh, mariusz is extremely precise and accurate, which was well suited to belcore. and anna is completely free and i never know what's going to happen until about dress rehearsal. and then, um -- and matthew is very steady and very poetic and interested in exploring that. so, uh, actually all those energies were really good for -- it worked well. yeah, bringing it together. well, you have worked with your design team for all four of your met productions, and they are going to join us now. this is catherine zuber, who designed the costumes for today's production and michael yeargan, who did the sets. hello, welcome. uh, cathy, as usual, your costumes are really just gorgeous. oh, thank you. what was your inspiration for the look that you've created for this show? uh, well, we looked at a lot of research of the 1830s and also we looked at a lot of films that were designed by piero tosi to sort of get a sense of costumes that would be at the same time real and theatrical and have a quality to go along with the beautiful sets that michael designed -- that they have a painterly quality to the costumes. well, you just said it. michael, i understand that you and bart took design cues from the legendary scenic designer oliver messel. we did, actually. we were about halfway through the process of working out many different versions of it and, uh, suddenly we looked at some of the designs of oliver messel and there was a kind of wonderful, naive but sophisticated quality to them, which we felt was really right for "l'elisir." and, uh, as we worked on it it just sort of evolved into this kind of painterly vision of the piece. it's kind of a battle between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional all the way through the piece. so, you have this kind of war going on. but the messel stuff was well suited to... it's weird, the music sounds like it sounds better in that kind -- in sort of painted scenery. well, that's very interesting. it just sort of feels like it's a little bit more uh, evocative. well, cathy, anna looks fabulous in her costumes. how have bart's ideas about her character informed the clothes? well, bart felt that she was a very strong woman that finds herself in the position of authority and responsibility which at that time was not usual for a woman in her position. so, we felt that she needed to be incredibly feminine but strong. and so, um, i felt that the amazon or riding habit was a great choice. but she arranges it to be more personal to her. so, she may have a comfortable bodice with a riding skirt and then the jacket. well, the hat is absolutely adorable. yeah, isn't she great in it? we brought it to a photo shoot that we had in vienna, and she just fell in love with the idea of the hat. well, it suits her. yeah, and we wanted to do authority, power and authority, and she runs the farm herself, so it -- it always is -- she always puts it on whenever she wants to be more powerful in the scene. not everyone could carry that look off, i'm just saying. yeah, no, i know. but anyway. bart, cathy, michael thank you all very much. this pbs program will return in a moment. for artists, one tremendous thing about pbs is that it makes art accessible by putting it on a platform where millions of people can access it for free. on pbs, many people have seen something they would never see otherwise. the language of music so universal it can touch someone anywhere. and we need it. we need music, we need dance, we need great theater. we need all these things for our soul you know, for joy and peace in our lives. after all these millennia, art is still something that survives. a lot of people don't have the means or aren't even aware that's something out there, and they may flip on pbs and e something that wakes up that integral part of being a human being which is enjoying the arts of other human beings. i feel like that's important to me. so i'm grateful for pbs {thank you} as an artist and as a viewer. "great performances at the metropolitan opera" is brought to you by toll brothers. with its commitment to elegant craftsmanship and luxury lifestyles, toll brothers has been building homes and communities throughout the nation for more than 40 years. additional funding is provided by... the national endowment for the arts -- art works. the agnes varis trust, supporting affordable access to the arts, education and healthcare... and by contributions to a pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. voigt: well, now i'm going to speak with baritone mariusz kwiecien, our belcore. hello, mariusz. hello, welcome, welcome. so, tell us, your character is such a braggart. do you enjoy playing a character who's so full of himself? well, i have to enjoy, because i am singing those don giovannis and, uh, onegins. and belcore is one of those. so, yes, yes i like it. i am not like that in my real life, but i try to find this kind of character in myself and then produce it onstage. well, it takes a lot of confidence for us to sing on the stage of the met, doesn't it? yes, but it is uncomparable feeling you know, to be here and to sing. this is my 14th season. you've done so many seasons here, too. so, we are like one big family. it's easier. mariusz, you've appeared with anna many times at the met, and you've played her stern brother in "lucia," her co-conspirator in "don pasquale," and, next season you'll play her love interest as eugene onegin to her tatiana. how does knowing each other so well affect your performances together? of course, it's much easier to, you know -- we are both from, uh, europe from slavic countries. we can speak russian some polish. uh, we are more or less the same age, which helps also. and, uh, we just enjoy each other. we are the characters, similar characters, like really full of life. in our veins is lots of life not only blood. so, that's why we feel great onstage. well, and you and matthew both grew up together at the met. we are veterans with matthew, yes. we started years, years ago, in "cosi fan tutte." it was a real pleasure and it is growing and growing until -- until now. well, mariusz, thank you so much. thank you. enjoy the rest. at the end of the previous act adina has promised to marry belcore inviting the entire village to attend their wedding. nemorino is in despair and desperately calls for dulcamara's help. when the next act begins adina is entertaining the wedding guests when nemorino arrives, begging dulcamara for another bottle of the elixir in a last-ditch effort to win adina's love. here is the happy conclusion of "l'elisir d'amore." 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