The love potion. Throughout history, there has existed a fascination with the notion of a magical cure for unrequited love, which, after all, is a universal theme, and something most of us are sure to have experienced first hand at one time or another!
In the ancient world, all kinds of concoctions were prescribed and attempted, involving anything from dried snakes to gladiator sweat, with one of Pliny the Elder’s aphrodisiac recipes including hyena eyes!
In modern day Africa, love potions are still sold on the open market, and in Europe, a brew called ‘Spanish Fly’ can still be purchased – a substance made from ground-up beetles which is actually highly dangerous.
Thankfully, our hero Nemorino is sold nothing more harmful than a bottle of cheap red wine as an elixir to win the heart of his beloved Adina. L’elisir d’amore, Donizetti’s best-loved comic opera, remains one of the most notable uses of the ‘love potion’ in a piece of art , but this theme of ‘love in a bottle’ crops up again in again in literature, film and popular culture.
Here are our favourite ‘love potion’ moments below, tweet us @opera_north to share yours!
‘The Love Potion’ by Evelyn de Morgan, 1903
In Wagner’s epic masterpiece based on the Celtic legend Tristan and Iseult, the hero and heroine both drink what they believe to be poison (as Isolde’s revenge for Tristan’s betrayal), but is actually a love potion cunningly prepared by her maid Brangane. The pair fall passionately in love, which causes all sorts of trouble – jealousy, revenge, betrayal etc (standard Wagner). Here, Tristan and Isolde declare their love in a passionate duet:
The legend of Tristan and Isolde features in L’elisir d’amore, and suggests to Nemorino that a love potion may be the answer to his prayers…
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
In Shakespeare’s comedy, the twists and turns of the plot hinge of the use and abuse of mysterious love potions! Fairy King Oberon, to shame and avenge himself on his wife, orders servant Puck to prepare a special concoction that will cause her to fall in love with the next living thing she sees. This turns out to be Bottom, who has also fallen foul of Puck’s mischief and been temporarily transformed into a donkey!
“Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act II Sc1 (Oberon)
Tytania & Bottom in Opera North’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night's Dream (2013). Photo credit: Tristram Kenton.
The Legend of King Arthur
Aurthurian legend tells of an infamous use of a love potion, with bitter consequences! According to the Vulgate Merlin (part of the Lancelot-Grail, 13th Century), Queen Guinevere had an identical-looking half sister also named Guinevere. She conspired to give King Arthur a love potion, causing him to fall in love with her, the false Guinevere, and condemn his real wife to death as an imposter!
Several months later, the false Guinevere apparently fell mysteriously ill, and believing that God was punishing her, confessed to the deception. The real Guinivere took some persuading to forgive her husband, and declared that Lancelot, who had stood by her through the ordeal and who (she believed) would never have been deceived by a mere potion, was her true champion.
‘The Last Meeting of Lancelot and Guinevere’ by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1854
The 1992 film (inspired by the famous song) starring Sandra Bullock and Tate Donovan tells the story two scientists, neither of whom have much luck in the dating department, who scientifically analyse an alleged ‘love potion’ and discover that it has genuine bio-chemical effects. They start to experiment on themselves and both suddenly become irresistible, which causes more complications than they could have imagined…
In the J.K. Rowling’s magical world of Harry Potter, the presence of ‘love potions’ is fairly inevitable! One amusing incident in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince saw Ron Weasley fall victim to a mis-directed love potion through eating a ‘spiked’ box of chocolates, and become suddenly smitten with Romilda Vane, whom he had never actually met…
In the series, it is interesting to note that love potions cause feelings more akin to obsession than affection, as it is believed that true love cannot be produced through artificial means:
“Powerful infatuations can be produced by the skilled potioneer, but never yet has anyone managed to create the truly unbreakable, eternal, unconditional attachment that alone can be called love”
Hector Dagworth-Granger on love potions
And so we see time and again, that that mysterious, magical, yet materialistic ‘love potion’ can never conjure up genuine love, a force more powerful than any sourcery, and that the instigator often gets more than enough come-uppence for daring to meddle! However...
Try our own ‘love potion’...
Opera North is delighted to be teaming up with Pintura Bar & Kitchen this season to bring you an extra special treat: the L’elisir d’amore cocktail!
A twist on a classic Paloma, this exciting fusion of tequila, Pamplemousse and pink grapefruit will, unlike some other love potions, cause you no trouble at all and bring you only happy-ever-afters... Priced at just £5 for L’elisir d’amore ticket holders, what better way to continue the post-finale fun?
L’elisir d’amore opens at Leeds Grand Theatre on Wednesday 17 February 2016 before touring to Newcastle Theatre Royal, Nottingham Theatre Royal and The Lowry, Salford Quays during March. To find out more, visit our website.
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