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The long-running partnership between the University of Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble and the Paradigm Chamber Orchestra continues this weekend with two performances of Donizetti's romantic comedy "The Elixir of Love," set in 1950s Kentucky.

Director Anthony Buck, a doctoral student at the U. and teaching assistant in the opera program, said his staging will have the same sense of "innocent time and place" as the opera's original setting in rural Italy, but contemporary audiences might find the update more relatable. (It still will be sung in Italian, with an English translation projected above the stage.)

The plot revolves around Nemorino, a poor yokel, and Adina, a wealthy landowner whom he loves. Nemorino becomes convinced that a love potion provided by the traveling snake-oil salesman Dulcamara will overcome their differences in station and Adina's apparent lack of interest in him; in the opera's most famous aria, "Una furtiva lagrima (One furtive tear)," he sings of his confidence that the potion has done its job.

"These are two people who each have great strengths and who each have great flaws," Buck said. Nemorino is emotionally transparent, but self-conscious about his lack of education; the strong and confident Adina is more guarded with her feelings. "In a way, they complete each other," the director said. "It's a great story about the hope we have for relationships, that we will find someone in our life — a romantic partner, a mentor, a friend — and the love we share will ultimately complete us."

Staging an opera in Libby Gardner Concert Hall is a challenge Buck enjoys; he directed Lyric Opera Ensemble productions of "Idomeneo" and "Amahl and the Night Visitors" there previously. (More recently, he adapted and directed Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" for the company in collaboration with composer Michael Leavitt.) "It's certainly a detriment not to have an orchestra pit," he said of Libby Gardner, "but this is my third production on that stage, and I have ideas on how to fit some cool things onstage as creatively as I can."

The town-and-gown teaming of Robert Breault's student opera company and Joel Rosenberg's community-based orchestra "started with our friendship 20 years ago when I invited Bob to perform a 'Messiah' with us," Rosenberg said in an email. "This was followed by joint performances of several operas — 'Nabucco,' 'William Tell,' 'Figaro' — performed outside of the university until we started the formal partnership 10 years ago, which has given over 450 students opportunities to learn and perform major operatic roles with an orchestra." —

Furtive tears

The University of Utah Lyric Opera Ensemble and the Paradigm Chamber Orchestra team up for Donizetti's "The Elixir of Love." The opera is sung in Italian. Joel Rosenberg conducts; Anthony Buck directs.

When • Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24 and 25, 7:30 p.m.

Where • Libby Gardner Concert Hall, 1375 E. Presidents Circle, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $12.50; free with U. of U. student ID; $6.50 for other students