Adriana Lecouvreur

 

This week Metropolitan Opera streamed again Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur which was performed on 12 January 2019; during the 2018–19 season. I saw back then the live transmission as part of the Met’s Live in HD series but this week I decided to watch it again as it is not very well known opera and it was a very, very good performance. Starring superstar soprano Anna Netrebko (as Adriana), mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili (as Princess de Bouillon), tenor Piotr Beczała (as Maurizio), and Ambrogio Maestri (as Michonnet), conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. It was a very good performance with superstars singing, strong duets, beautiful costumes and interesting scenography.

"Adriana Lecouvreur" is an opera in 4 acts by the composer Francesco Cilèa, librettist Arturo Colautti. World premiere of the opera was at Teatro Lirico, Milan, on 6.11.1902 and made the composer world known. Francesco Cilèa created his opera based on the libretto by Arturo Colautti, which was based on a play by Eugene Scribe and Ernest Loguve. The audience welcomed "Adriana Lecouvreur" - a gallery of images worthy of the opera stage, presented with beautiful arias and ensembles on a refined aristocratic or theatrical background. The action takes place in March 1730 in Paris. The famous actress Adriana Lecouvreur is the victim of love intrigues involving a family of aristocrats, a Saxon officer - Count of Saxony, a French abbot and a theater director from "Comedy Frances". Her only desire for true love put her between backstage intrigue and political maneuvering. At the end true love is triumphant but jеalousy and revenge are stronger and win; the actress is poisoned by a bouquet of faded violets sent by her romantic rival, leaving two men who love her desperates.

A gem of the verismo repertoire, Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur has only appeared a handful of times on the Met stage. When it has, however, it has often showcased some of opera’s greatest divas in the commanding title role, including Renata Tebaldi, Montserrat Caballé, and Renata Scotto. In Bulgaria this opera is put on stage only few times in history of the opera art: in 1933 in Sofia, 1971 in Plovdiv, 1988 again in Sofia and in 2015 in Varna. 

Each day since March 2020, a different encore presentation from the Met’s Live in HD series is being made available for free streaming on the Met website, with each performance available for a period of 23 hours, from 7:30 p.m. EDT until 6:30 p.m. the following day. The schedule include outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers. I’m very grateful for this initiative of Metropolitan opera in these difficult times. I hope one day I’ll watch live some opera in the Met house.