On the face of it, Gaetano Donizetti’s jovial 1832 comedy is simple to the point of idiocy: rustic fancies chilly rich girl; she prefers moustachioed soldier; rustic buys “love potion” from dodgy travelling salesman; takes it – gets tiddly (it’s just wine), and his new Dutch courage wins him the girl.

Yet inside this deeply unsophisticated scenario – reputedly whipped up in a fortnight to fill a sudden gap in the schedule of a Milanese theatre – there is something that has kept the ditsy piece in the world’s affections for nearly 200 years. And not just its being the chosen vehicle for the cream of bel canto voices from Joan Sutherland to Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Renata Scotto, Plácido Domingo and Rolando Villazón: it genuinely proposes the power of faithful hearts (with a bit of help from music) to liberate us from worldly trammels and stupidities: a belief in human love that changes everything.