Even among an operatic public armour-plated against the laughable, the final moments of Francesco Cilea’s 1902 opera can provoke outraged guffaws: the heroine pegs out not as a result of disease, suicide or even fatally impugned honour – no: she takes a whiff of a poisoned bunch of flowers … sniffs it, snuffs it. I know, I know. But the strength of the work is that it surmounts this rubbish with some of the most properly sensitive music written by any Italian after Verdi.The eighteenth-century actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, doyenne of the French stage, had a vividly romantic life and legendary (and let’s hope apocryphal) death that was grist to the mill of Eugène Scribe, originator of the dreaded “well-made play”. Composers loved these sensational
31 July 2014, The Tablet
Never mind the plot
Adriana Lecouvreur Opera Holland Park, London
Get Instant Access
Continue Reading
Register for free to read this article in full
Subscribe for unlimited access
From just £30 quarterly
Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
The full weekly edition in print and digital including our 179 years archive.
PDF version to view on iPad, iPhone or computer.
Already a subscriber? Login