Cilea:Adriana Lecouvreur

 Opera no

Cilea: Adriana Lecouveur

Soloists

Welsh National Opera

Richard Bonynge

This was another opera which I knew by reputation but which, as far as I know, I had never heard a note of. I found it rather a mixed bag. I really enjoyed the opening scene, which is a very lively picture of backstage preparations in the theatre - it had a lightness of touch which suggests that Cilea might have had a real talent for comedy. But I did find much of the opera either rather dull and cliche ridden or else too melodramatic. I know that this is verismo opera and you shouldn’t expect subtlety but Cilea did rather lay in on thick with a trowel. 

I hadn’t realised that Cilea lived on until 1950, though he gave up writing operas in 1907 after the failure of his last opera Gloria. He really must have seemed like a figure from another age by the time of his death.

This ends this little venture into the post-Verdi world of Italian opera, a repertoire which I knew almost nothing about. Puccini’s Fanciualla del West was by far the stand out work, though I found much to enjoy in several of the other operas, particular those by Ponchielli and Cataliani. Both of them died comparatively young and it is interesting to to speculate how the Italian opera might have developed had they survived to a good age.

For the next phase of the project I am crossing the Atlantic and embarking on a exploration of American opera might- again an area of the reportoire that is largely unfamiliar to me.