Sydney opera fans will have the opportunity to enjoy the Australian premiere of acclaimed Italian director Rosetta Cucchi’s production of Adriana Lecouvreur on February 20, with the production running until March 7, 2023. Based on an episode in the life of the French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur (1692–1730), this opera is a tryst with a twist.
Adriana Lecouvreur will feature an outstanding quartet of some of the world’s most extraordinary opera singers, including Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho who will reprise the part of Adriana Lecouvreur.
Jaho immersed herself in the title role when co-producer Opera Oviedo staged this production in early 2022, after it opened at Teatro Comunale Di Bologna. Critics claimed Jaho was “absolutely splendid in the difficult character of Adriana Lecouvreur, a role for which she seems to have been born” – Scherzo.
Adriana’s bitter rival, the Principessa, will be performed by Romanian mezzo-soprano Carmen Topciu. No stranger to playing Ermonela’s on-stage rival, the pair faced off against each other as Anne and Jane in Opera Australia’s 2019 production of Anna Bolena.
Michael Fabiano returns to OA
Award-winning American tenor Michael Fabiano also returns, after his last performance with the Company in 2019, to make his role debut as the romantic lead, Maurizio. Coming from the cast of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera, Fabiano will first perform his debut Australian solo recital at Melbourne City Recital Hall on February 12.
Leading Italian baritone Giorgio Caoduro will perform the role of Michonnet, Adriana’s doting stage director.
Also part of the stellar Opera Australia lineup is Jane Ede, Angela Hogan, Virgilio Marino, Richard Anderson, Adam Player and Anthony Mackey, each making role debuts in this exciting production.
The lush, romantic score of Cilèa’s most famous opera will be expertly played by the Opera Australia Orchestra, conducted by Italian maestro Leonardo Sini who won the prestigious International Conducting Competition Maestro Solti in 2017.
Cucchi’s acclaimed version features breathtaking sets and costumes designed by Tiziano Santi and Claudia Pernigotti. Audiences are transported through time, with each of the four acts taking place in a new era, from the 18th century to the 1960s.
Opera’s definitive statement on celebrity scandals brims with passion and peril. The brilliant Cucchi takes this salacious tale from the repertoire’s shadows to the limelight – where Adriana Lecouvreur rightfully belongs.
- When: Evenings at 7.00pm on February 20, 22, 28, March 2, 4, 7. Saturday at 12.00pm on February 25.
- Where: Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
- Book tickets here.