Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur

Starring Angela Gheorghiu as the celebrated French actress Adriana Lecouvreur and Jonas Kaufmann as her lover Maurizio, Count of Saxony, Cilea’s verismo drama explores celebrity, romance, jealousy, and death.

The trio of sublime voices is completed by Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina as Adriana’s jealous rival, the Princess de Bouillon.

David McVicar’s hit production – the first performance of the opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for more than a century – presents the life of the French actress as a blurring of the distinction between fantasy and reality.

The action revolves around a life-size Baroque Theatre, taking us from the bustle and colour of the first act backstage at the playhouse, to the bare final scenes as the drama reaches its fatal climax.

The DVD & Blu-ray contain bonus footage featuring interviews with the principal artists, Director, Set Designer and Conductor.

“Kaufmann and Gheorghiu radiate sexiness" (Financial Times)

“Gheorghiu is a dream" (The Independent)

Under the baton of Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, a new generation of singers gave fresh life to Cilea's most polished work in January 2000. Daniela Dessì, appearing at La Scala for the first time in the title role, was singled out for praise in the Italian press: while La Repubblica admired the "sensual tones" of her singing, La Nazione called it an interpretation which "touched the audience's heart". At her side are two of the finest Russian singers on the international stage today: Sergei Larin as Maurizio is heard in a role that sits perfectly for his voice, while Olga Borodina threatens to steal the show as the jealous Princess. Directed for stage and TN by Lamberto Puggelli.

This is the first ever DVD release of RAI’s made-for-television production of Adriana Lecouvreur. Marcella Pobbe in the title role is mesmerizing from the instant she appears on screen. This telecast was made in 1955, only three years after the composer’s death.

NTSC (Black & white)

REGION: 0

SUBTITLES: No

Set Design by Nicola Rubertelli

It is said even Giuseppe Verdi briefly gave consideration to writing an opera based on this whodunit, when Cilea decided to set the material to music in 1899. The opera’s world premiere in Milan in 1902 was a triumph, due in no small measure to a stellar cast of singers that included Enrico Caruso as Maurizio. For a decade the work was performed regularly throughout Europe and America; thereafter it increasingly disappeared from the repertoire. After revisions to the score and plot and the introduction of significant cuts, Adriana Lecouvreur made a successful comeback and established a presence once again on the international stage. The premiere of the defi nitive version took place in Naples in 1930. Since this time the three main roles of Arturo Colautti’s libretto have regularly been filmed by great artists.

In the present stylised production by Lorenzo Mariani, which features reduced décor but magnifi cent rococo costumes, the “violet-perfumed murderess” is taken by mezzo-soprano Marianne Cornetti, one of the most in-demand representatives of her vocal category. Opposite her, in the role of Adriana, is a soprano who as a Verdi and verismo specialist also appears regularly at all the major international opera houses, Micaela Carosi. The “cock-of-the-walk” role is sung by the world-class tenor Marcelo Álvarez. His timbre, velvety smooth yet robustly virile, is ideally suited to a vocal characterisation of the idolised Maurizio. Conductor Renato Palumbo is very much at home with Cilea’s operatic masterpiece, since the Italian Romantic and verismo periods are at the core of his extensive repertoire.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 7.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Subtitle Languages: IT, GB, DE, FR, ES, JP

Running Time: 151 mins

Blu-ray Disc: 25 GB (Single Layer)

FSK: 0

Set Design by Nicola Rubertelli

It is said even Giuseppe Verdi briefly gave consideration to writing an opera based on this whodunit, when Cilea decided to set the material to music in 1899. The opera’s world premiere in Milan in 1902 was a triumph, due in no small measure to a stellar cast of singers that included Enrico Caruso as Maurizio. For a decade the work was performed regularly throughout Europe and America; thereafter it increasingly disappeared from the repertoire. After revisions to the score and plot and the introduction of significant cuts, Adriana Lecouvreur made a successful comeback and established a presence once again on the international stage. The premiere of the defi nitive version took place in Naples in 1930. Since this time the three main roles of Arturo Colautti’s libretto have regularly been filmed by great artists.

In the present stylised production by Lorenzo Mariani, which features reduced décor but magnifi cent rococo costumes, the “violet-perfumed murderess” is taken by mezzo-soprano Marianne Cornetti, one of the most in-demand representatives of her vocal category. Opposite her, in the role of Adriana, is a soprano who as a Verdi and verismo specialist also appears regularly at all the major international opera houses, Micaela Carosi. The “cock-of-the-walk” role is sung by the world-class tenor Marcelo Álvarez. His timbre, velvety smooth yet robustly virile, is ideally suited to a vocal characterisation of the idolised Maurizio. Conductor Renato Palumbo is very much at home with Cilea’s operatic masterpiece, since the Italian Romantic and verismo periods are at the core of his extensive repertoire.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: IT, GB, DE, FR, ES, JP

Running Time: 151 mins

FSK: 0

Cilea’s four-act opera of jealousy and tangled love, first performed in Milan in 1902, is based on the true-life story of Adriana Lecouvreur, an 18th-Century actress at the Comédie Française, whose rival for the love of Maurizio, Count of Saxony, is the married Principessa di Bouillon.