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.

At-Home Gala

picture: metopera.org

Greetings and congratulations from a big Met’s fan in Bulgaria to all the artists; singers and musicians; to managers and staff of Metropolitan opera for this 4 hours Gala, such an extraordinary event!

At-Home Gala was an unprecedented undertaking, which featured more than 40 leading artists performing in a live stream from their homes all around the world. General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin were hosting from their homes in New York City and Montreal, respectively.

We heard artists from their homes in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Georgia, Switzerland, Sweden, Latvia, Malta, Spain, Poland and of course Met’s home USA. A sweet couple (Diana Damrau and Nicolas teste) sung from their kitchen in France and we were welcomed by their kids, another couple (Ailyn Perez and Soloman Howard) sung and acted from Chicago, we heard a greetings to Mexico by Javier Camarena etc.

The first pre-recorded live performance of Met’s Orchestra, I saw, of Cavalleria rusticana’s intermezzo (one of my favorite operas) was exciting and made me weep not only because of the beautiful music but because of the picture made of tiny little pictures of people playing at their homes; Vagner performance was touching. All pre-recorded performances of Met’s orchestra –Oh, they were amazing. Met’s Viola section also paid tribute to one of their colleagues. The pre-recorded performance of Met Orchestra and Chorus of Verdi’s Nabuco aria was astonishing, a prickly feeling, beautiful – a big Bravo. It was extraordinary: so many persons playing and singing at same time from their homes thousands of miles away one from another with such a synchrony. Bravo also to their Music Director and to technicians who made this possible by the tools of the technology!

Elena Garancia’s performance of L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Bizet‘s Carmen is also one of my favorite operas) was also very exciting and made me cry. My favorite soprano, beautiful Roussalka, Sonya Yoncheva wished all of us a new beginning starting from tomorrow.

The At-Home Gala was part of the Met’s urgent “The Voice Must Be Heard” fundraising campaign to support the company and protect its future.

Everyone can donate at the site of the opera: metopera.org/ProtectTheMet.

Already 6 weeks, each day, a different encore presentation from the Met’s Live in HD series is being made available for the fans worldwide 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 includes outstanding complete performances from the past 14 years of cinema transmissions, starring all of opera’s greatest singers.

I’m very happy that I had the time to watch already several of these performances as:

Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia; Starring Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Flórez, and Peter Mattei, conducted by Maurizio Benini, From March 24, 2007

Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca (Librettist Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica) Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Vittorio Grigolo, and Željko Lučić, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume. From January 27, 2018.

Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow operetta, (Librettist Viktor Léon and Leo Stein). Starring Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, and Nathan Gunn, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. From January 17, 2015.

And, maybe one of the best operas ever - Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata; (Librettist Francesco Maria Piave) Starring Natalie Dessay, Matthew Polenzani, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From April 14, 2012.

Met’s performances are amazing because of their spread/scope, because of the spectacular scenery, the beautiful costumes and big names singing there. I admire the art there and would like very much to see some performance in live/on site very soon.

Let's God help all of us and stop this pandemic very soon! Meanwhile we need music as music is healing and unifying; we need art, beauty and love. Don’t lose your hope, laugh and joy, friendship, solidarity, good humor and inner peace!