Adriana Lecouvreur - Adriana Lecouvreur

The name of Francesco Cilea (1866-1950), a verismo composer and contemporary of Pietro Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo, would probably be forgotten today were it not for the enduring success of Adriana Lecouvreur, the only one of his works to remain in the repertoire.

Cilea's librettist, Arturo Colautti, chose to adapt for the operatic stage a very famous work by Eugène Scribe, performed by Sarah Bernhardt and others. It is a comedy whose heroine is a great actress of the Comédie-Française, celebrated by Voltaire and loved by Maurice de Saxe, the famous tragedienne Adrienne Lecouvreur (1692-1730) who triumphed over Corneille and Racine. The adaptation interweaves real life and theatre, allowing the composer to use a brilliant and expressive musical style at the service of a wide range of passionate emotions. The romanticised life of the famous tragedienne allows the theme of a double rivalry (sometimes amorous, sometimes professional) to be exploited, which ends tragically with Adrienne's death caused by the toxic effluence of a poisoned bouquet. 

Cilea's use of recurring motifs ensures a continuity that is characteristic of his orchestral skills in a work that contains magnificent arias that are easy to isolate from their context and are often performed in concert, where they allow the performer's vocal potential to be fully exploited. The role of Adrienne, who declares from the outset: "My voice is a breath", then "the aim of my art: truth", requires great mastery to achieve emotion beyond a text that has aged a little. The work was an immediate success, with the famous Enrico Caruso singing the role of Maurice. Cilea's definitive version was the result of a revival in Naples in 1930 at the Teatro San Carlo.

Summary of the opera Adriana Lecouvreur

In Paris in 1730, the tragic actress Adrienne Lecouvreur and the Princesse de Bouillon were in love with the same man, Maurice de Saxe, a brilliant officer and a great seducer. Adrienne managed to win his love, but she died, poisoned by the deadly scent of a bouquet of violets sent by her rival.

Act 1

Michonnet, the old stage manager of the Comédie-Française, is secretly in love with Adrienne. But the actress confesses her love to someone she believes to be a young officer in Maurice de Saxe's entourage. In reality, it is Maurice himself whom the Prince of Bouillon suspects of having an affair with his protégée, La Duclos, Adrienne's rival on stage. La Duclos is acting as an intermediary for the Prince's own wife, who is also in love with Maurice. The Prince decides to surprise the supposed lovers by setting a trap for them with an invitation for that very evening. However, under his false identity of a lieutenant, Maurice has declared his love for Adrienne, who has given him a bouquet of violets and promised to meet him after the show.

Act 2

The Princesse de Bouillon is waiting for Maurice in the pavilion where she had arranged to meet him and where he has reluctantly gone, misled by supposed political motives. He remains cold in the face of her passion, and she suspects, from the bouquet of violets he wears in his buttonhole, that she has a rival. To reassure her, he gives her the flowers Adrienne had given him. When the guests invited by the suspicious Prince de Bouillon arrive, the Princess goes into hiding, while Adrienne, who has also been invited to the famous evening, is delighted to discover that the man she loves is Maurice de Saxe himself. Adrienne agrees to help the hidden princess escape. The two women discover that they are rivals, without either of them knowing who the other is.

Act 3

At a large reception held at the home of the Prince de Bouillon, the Princess and Adrienne manage to identify with each other and begin to clash. After the guests have been entertained with a dance, the quarrel between the two rivals flares up again. Adrienne shows the Princess a bracelet she lost in the pavilion where she had taken refuge to avoid her husband's suspicions, and the Princess immediately recognises the jewel. The Princess asks Adrienne to recite a few verses to avoid having to explain herself. Adrienne chooses Phèdre's monologue and addresses the last lines to the Princess as a warning.

Act 4

In her elegant boudoir, Adrienne, in despair, is now convinced of Maurice's infidelity. She considers giving up the theatre to let herself die of grief. On the occasion of her birthday, the members of the Comédie-Française and Michonnet, her faithful companion, surround her and give her courage. Reassured, she promised not to abandon the stage and her enthusiastic audience. A box was brought to her by Maurice. As soon as she opened it, she felt an "icy breath". Inside was her bouquet of wilted violets, which she thought was a farewell present from her lover. In fact, the flowers had been poisoned by her rival, the Princesse de Bouillon. When Maurice arrives to offer to marry her, it is too late. Adrienne dies in his arms, a victim of the deadly scent of the fateful bouquet.