Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur

I cannot find enough good things to say about this wonderful production of Cilea's neglected early twentieth century romantic masterpiece "Adriana Lecouvreur" from Covent Garden. This was clearly a labor of love on the parts of Sir David McVicar, the Director, and of all of the cast and of the conductor Mark Elder. Adriana has a somewhat problematic storyline. If not properly presented, the opera can appear old-fashioned and excessively melodramatic.David McVicar has overcome these intrinsic problems by setting the opera largely behind stage at the Comedie-Francaise in Paris extending the well-known concept of the stage within a stage. He thus emphasizes the theatrical nature of all the characters even those who are not supposed to be actors in the actual story. Adriana Lecouvreur herself moves rapidly between her real-life situation and her art often not appearing to distinguish between the two.This opera requires great singing actors who also have the right appearances for their roles. Angela Gheorghiu brings a wonderful quality to her difficult role. She is a beautiful woman. She portrays Adriana as a good-hearted, fragile, sympathetic and ultimately tragic character and I found her totally convincing in the role. She like the other artists is assisted by exquisite eighteenth-century costumes. In this regard one can only welcome David McVicar's honoring Cilea's intention of setting the opera in its correct time period namely Paris in the 1730s. We do not need an Adriana Lecouvreur set in Las Vegas!Ms. Gheorghiu's singing is terrific. I thought that Sutherland did a better job of Adriana's entry aria - "Io son l'umile ancella" - but Ms. Gheorghiu's "Poveri fiori" is a tour de force of both singing and acting. She looked truly exhausted and emotionally spent at the end of this famous aria. Her declamatory skill as a diva is evident in the Phedre monologue in Act III which I found to be absolutely thrilling.Jonas Kaufmann is the obvious first choice nowadays for any romantic opera which requires a great voice and a credible young, virile and handsome lover. We saw that in his recent Werther at the Metropolitan Opera and we see it here even more when he plays Maurizio. His "La dolcissima effigie" was spectacular. His Act 2 aria "L'anima ha stanca" was extremely moving and magnificently sung. He and Ms. Gheorghiu have wonderful chemistry in the love scenes, a chemistry one rarely sees in opera nowadays.Olga Borodina is highly effective as the Princesse de Bouillon. She not only sings beautifully but she manages with just her eyes and facial expressions to convey the Princess's venomous and scheming character. Her "Acerba volutta" at the beginning of Act 2 is simply stunning. She dominates the stage with her majestic presence whenever she appears.Alessandro Corbelli, as Michonnet the stage manager at the Comedie-Francaise, shows all his skills as a singing actor. He is subtle and poignant in the role of Adriana's friend and secret admirer and would be lover. The warmth and chemistry between him and Ms. Gheorghiu made their scenes together wonderful and moving to behold.The Blu-ray DVD is of superb quality. The subtitles are modern without departing from the librettist's intent. The music quality is astounding. This DVD belongs in any opera lover's collection. David McVicar has set a standard which I wish more opera directors would follow. Like Adriana he respects what the composer intended. I would hope that he could extend this treatment to new productions of other difficult and neglected operas like Ponchielli's La Gioconda and Giordano's Andrea Chenier and Fedora. There are so many neglected and rarely performed operas from that period just waiting for the right director and cast to bring them back to life.Adriana Lecouvreur has not been staged at the Royal Opera House since about 1904, two years after its world premiere at the Teatro Lirico in Milan with Caruso as Maurizio. Opera lovers everywhere should be grateful that Covent Garden took the gamble of reintroducing this wonderful opera to the public.

The performing history of Adriana Lecouvreur outside of Italy is at best checkered. Essentially it has been the wish of the Prima Donna to mount it although its premiere in 1907 at the Metropolitan was doubtless the desire of Gatti-Casazza. the General Manager. Caruso repeated the role of Maurizio which he had sung in Italy and London. The title role was sung by Lina Cavaliere, a great beauty but unable to create public interest in the opera even though it was performed during the following season. It was not until Tebaldi coaxed Bing to mount it for her that the work reentered the repertoire. Prior to this Ponselle in the mid thirties asked the then General Manager, Edward Johnson, to revive it for her. Ponselle's top voice had become somewhat precarious and many of her scores had to be lowered; Adriana with its high note a B was ideal for the great singer, but Johnson refused and Ponselle retired.Bing, not known for flexibility in dealing with singers, doubtless felt that the work with Tebaldi would be a success, but unfortunately Tebaldi's mother died and the great soprano returned to Italy. The opera was farmed out to a variety of singers, not all of whom found the music vocally congenial. San Francisco mounted it for Scotto in the seventies (a live recording exists) and Sony recorded it with the diva, Domingo and Milnes. Certainly Scotto's performance is a touchstone and it is a pity that cameras were not present to document the event.In approaching this opera one must simply accept the work for what it is. Cilea was born in the middle of the nineteenth century and that is where the music is. Unlike Puccini who was a far more gifted and sophisticated composer, Cilea simply wasn't interested in music that had a whiff of the new trends in composition. And while he had a great success at the premiere of Adriana its continued success even in Italy has to a certain extent has been the desire of the soprano to have it mounted for her. This was the case at ROH. Gheorghiu appears to have a good relationship with the powers that be in England; it was her desire to sing Adriana and she wanted the director, David McVicar. What the lady wants..............The powers that be were very wise when they cast Jonas Kaufmann as Maurizio. A tenor who looks good, who can act and one that can bring nuance and subtlety to the music is always going to be a plus in any performance. When he is not singing with Adriana the role of Maurizio is somewhat of an empty suit, dramatically. Cossotto or Simionato would have been the choice in the fifties and sixties for Princesse de Boullion but Borodina retains considerable power and skill for the role delivering what is required of her. Ideally the lead role is best sung by a spinto or at least a soprano who can pretend to that ideal. Gheorghiu's middle and low notes are not her glory but when the vocal line goes above the stave she is wonderful and she has retained her physical beauty and as an actress she fulfills all the requirements needed. A vocally poor performance--even a mediocre one--is not worth documenting. Boheme has suffered through dozens of indifferent performances in provincial theatres and it has hurt its reputation not a whit; it is that well constructed. Adriana is not that sturdy and ROH have provided us with a document that while not perfect, need not fear any competition. What I do fear is that when the work is revived, the company will not lavish the same attention and thereby condemming it to another hundred years of silence.The set contains a "bonus": twenty six minutes of interviews with the diva, Kaufmann, McVicar and Sir Mark, Elder, the conductor. All do their best to convince you that the opera is a viable and worthy work. That the opera is flawed dramatically is hardly a stumbling block to popularity. Cilea provided a wealth of tunes which are repeated ad infinitum. What is lacking is that the composer was unable to make us care ultimately about the heroine, her vulnerability as well as her strengths. I admit that while I want to enjoy the opera I have never been able to give myself over to it as have the other reviewers. Cilea is a sitting duck for most critics who have savaged the work whenever it is revived. Fortunately for the opera most patrons have not read the critics and if they had it wouldn't be of any consequence. If it takes another hundred years for ROH to revive the work, Adriana will surely be reborn again for the soprano who is dying to sing the role.

I am not an opera expert -- just an avid (maybe voracious) consumer of operas, as well as a fan of several composers, opera houses, conductors, and directors. When I watched this 2010 production from the Royal Opera House, I knew that something unique was achieved. It's hard to pin down what it is though. First, that this is not a commonly-performed opera, and so, just having this on recording is itself a contribution to the arts and culture. Second, that this production came about because Angela Gheorghiu pushed strongly for it (and even roped in Sir David McVicar), after a hiatus of more than a century at the ROH, is itself an interesting piece of trivia, but more importantly, demonstrates the artistic drive that a diva can have to the broader aspects of opera (more than just being a performer). If anything, this makes it an even more compelling case to see how Gheorghiu demonstrates her craft in this difficult opera.Personally, I found it hard to place this opera in the broader repertoire -- maybe this is what makes it rather special. It is not a verismo piece, as that would be too narrow a classification. There is deeper wisdom to be found in the underlying themes, more than just a mirror of society and reality. Musically, there are elements that Cilea used, which I think inspired Puccini (see if you can hear Fanciulla del west), and was inspired by the arpeggio leitmotifs in Wagner's ring cycle.I guarantee you that watching this wouldn't be a waste of time. But it will take a certain amount of intellectual effort to process what had been done in this production, and what the contribution of this work is.

NOT THE ROH PERFORMANCE WHICH I HAVE NOT SEEN!!Everything on this disc by way of menu is in Italian so a bit limiting if you don't have it as a language.A production from La Scala with Mirella Freni in excellent voice as usual with an equally sound performance from her leading man .Beautiful costumes and set wth a great and moving ballet section in the third act. As mentioned by another review the audience behaviour nearly ruins the overall atmosphere several times completely unnecessarily and ridiculously prolonged at the end of the performance. Appreciation by an audience is perfectly acceptable but when it takes on the audio proportions of a football match it can ruin the later enjoyment one can derive from a recording and therefore potential multiple viewings. Excellent singing all the same, beautiful music!!

Although Francesco Cilea (1866-1950) composed several operas in his twenties and thirties and was highly regarded as a composer, he is now mostly remembered for what is now regarded as his masterpiece: Adriana Lecouvreur, and he gave up composing operas altogether after 1907. This work follows the Verdi-Puccini style in which a hero or heroine or both dies or die in the saddest possible circumstances at the end of the performance. Here Cilea's genius lies in the way he relates his music to precisely express the emotions of the characters at any given time during the performance. Even Verdi could not have done it better than we have here. Sometimes, in opera, emotions can be either underdone or overdone, but not here.This Royal Opera House production is of the best with helpful staging and appropriate style costumes and the orchestration with Mark Elder conducting is top grade. Angela Gheorghiu is convincing in the lead role of Adriana Lecouvreur, which she sings and acts to a tee, and the same can be said for her lover in the shape of Jonas Kaufmann in the role of Maurizio, Count of Saxony. Olga Borodina gives us a formidably realistic portrayal of Princess de Bouillon and it seemed to me that Alessandro Corbelli is especially good as the stage manager at the Comedie-Francaise. Everything about this performance poignantly brings out the way in which people can be influenced in a variety of ways by deeply seated emotions.Right through this performance one gets the impression that everyone involved is giving of their very best and there's a wonderful 'working together' feeling about it all that isn't always present even in the best of productions. It's certainly worth watching many times over and there's good mixture with lighter touches here and there, notably in the ballet in Act 3 based on the Judgement of Paris. Both sound and picture quality are of the best in this Blu-Ray recording and I could find no problems with them. I'm not going to say any more because, if you like this opera, you will like this great performance of it and I think it safe to say that the gentle-natured Cilea himself would have been 'thrilled to bits' with it.

It stars two of my favourite singers Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann, , I'd never seen this opera before, Cilea's music is beautiful, and this is an excellent production in its original time setting, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

A terrific production by David McVicar for ROH with a splendid cast. McVicar's production has been used again in this year's Adriana Lecouvreur at the Met. The special magic of a live performance cannot be denied, but preferring watching this excellent DVD (always given good viewing & sound equipment) to a seat in the Covent Garden amphitheatre is frankly a no brainer.

Loved this d.v.d. Had not seen this opera before and thoroughly enjoyed it. The singing is beautiful, the story is totally unrealistic, of course, but very entertaining. Most operas are unrealistic, that is part of their charm. It is nice to escape from everyday life and opera is such a lovely way to do it. Fantasy with beautiful music and great singing can't be beaten.