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Evening Standard, 19 November 2010 |
Barry Millington |
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Ciléa: Adriana Lecouvreur, Royal Opera House, 18 November 2010 |
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Drama on and off stage for Adriana Lecouvreur
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According
to the New Grove Dictionary, Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur
retains what popularity it does on account of the opportunities it
affords an experienced prima donna already past her prime.
While
it’s true it has often served as a vehicle for fading divas, it would be
ungallant to suggest Angela Gheorghiu fell into that category. But as
David McVicar’s brilliantly imaginative new production for Covent Garden
— the first since 1906 — shows, there is no requirement for Adriana to
be such an aging starlet.
The story, set in 18th-century Paris,
features theatrical stars, dramas on stage and off, passion, jealousy
and a poisoning with a nosegay of violets. It’s not quite full-blown
verismo, the melodramatic genre relished by 19th-century Italians, but
it comes pretty close.
McVicar’s neat concept suggests that the
theatre in which these characters act out their amorous and deadly drama
is actually a metaphor for the illusions harboured by lovers, actresses
and by extension all of us. Charles Edwards’s ingenious set, with
colourful period costumes by Brigitte Reiffenstuel and skilful lighting
by Adam Silverman, is a model theatre loosely based on the Margravian
Opera House in Bayreuth. We begin backstage, witnessing the
behind-the-scenes drama at the Comédie Française while observing a
performance silently enacted the other side of the lights. The set turns
so that the second-act villa resembles the front of a stage; in Act 3
we’re in the audience and in Act 4 backstage again for the climax of the
drama.
Gheorghiu does well to evoke a prima donna past her prime,
while Michaela Schuster presents a formidably sour-faced rival as the
Princess. The dashing, heroic-voiced Jonas Kaufmann is
everybody’s favourite tenor at the moment and his command of the role of
the much-lusted-after Maurizio is supreme, combining ringing top notes
and wonderfully delicate half-tones.
Alessandro Corbelli
is sympathetic as the stage manager Michonnet, hopelessly in love with
Adriana himself.
With his subtle handling of diaphanous string
textures and flawless pacing, Mark Elder demonstrates convincingly how
underrated this score actually is. |
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Foto: Alastair Muir |
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