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WhatsOnStage |
Keith McDonnell |
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Ciléa: Adriana Lecouvreur, Royal Opera House, 18 November 2010 |
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Adriana Lecouvreur *****
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Cilea’s ‘verismo’ opera has languished on the fringes of the repertoire
for many years, and although the Chelsea Opera Group gave the work in
concert as a vehicle for Nelly Miriciou last year and Opera Holland Park
staged it eight years’ ago, it’s had to wait 104 years for a revival at
Covent Garden, which by anyone’s reckoning is a long wait, but of course
the question is ‘But was it worth it?’
Well yes, and no. There’s
usually a reason why operas languish in the doldrums (Niobe, regina di
Tebe for example), but sometimes when a relic from a bygone operatic age
gets a good dusting down a masterpiece is revealed, or in the case of
Handel, a seemingly endless list of incomparable works for the stage
comes up like musical jewels.
Cilea’s tale, about an actress,
Adriana Lecouvreur, who is in love with a Prince, Maurizio, has more
than a whiff of the Mills & Boon about and as operatic stories go –
Maurizio is also loved by the Princesse de Bouillon who finding out that
he loves Adriana sends Adriana a casket of poisoned violets for her
birthday, which finishes her off in true operatic style, is pretty daft
and only really wears its ‘verismo’ tag because of the musical idiom in
which it is written.
But The Royal Opera evidently believes in
the work as it’s hard to envisage it better staged, played or sung,
indeed it’s a long time since I’ve been to an operatic performance where
it’s blatantly obvious that everyone involved has thought long and hard
about how to make it work, and are all pulling together to give it their
all.
Sir Mark Elder galvanises the orchestra who respond with
brilliantly detailed playing, and although Cilea’s score isn’t
top-drawer stuff, you’re unlikely to hear a more persuasive version of
the work than this.
The star-studded line up of
principals delivers strong performances, with the finest coming from
Jonas Kaufmann, who yet again proves that he is peerless in this
repertoire. He has the big guns for the role of Maurizio but it’s his
delicately spun mezza-voce phrases that really strike home and needless
to say, he looks the part to perfection.
Alessandro
Corbelli is on fine form as Michonnet, the stage manager of the theatre
troupe, and it’s good to see him in a more serious part here than usual
whilst Michaela Schuster was suitably venomous as the spurned Princesse
de Bouillon .There’s a splendid supporting cast that includes
Bonaventura Bottone (Abbé de Chazeuil) and Janis Kelly (Mademoiselle
Jouvenot)
In the title role Angela Gheorghiu gives a fine
portrayal of Adriana, and playing a star actress who is adored by her
fans can’t be that difficult for her, yet she often comes across as
being too mannered – it’s like there’s an additional layer of artifice
that somehow distracts from her actual performance, which is a shame as
she sang gloriously throughout the evening and was a magnetic stage
presence.
David McVicar’s staging was faultless and in Charles
Edwards’ suitably evocative designs told the story clearly and drew
turbo-charged performances from all the cast – would that his talents
were used more often down the road.
All in all this was a
red-letter day for The Royal Opera and whilst Adriana Lecouvreur is
never going to become a repertory piece, it was good to have seen it,
and I count myself lucky that I saw it in such a great staging with as
fine a cast as you’re likely to hear today. |
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