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Gerald Finley's velvet baritone lights up this revival of David McVicar's production of Cilea's murder story

Lavish sets and costumes, plus high musical quality, make Tosca at the Vienna State Opera a fine example of grand opera. 

It’s more than a little surprising that Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur is first gracing the stage of the Staatsoper in 2014, 112 years after its première.It is, therefore, disappointing that this co-production with Covent Garden is not more successful, despite its many excellent qualities.

OK, opera fans: anyone out there tired of being confronted with provocative modern interpretations of beloved operas? If so, this Tosca production is just what the doctor ordered.Set, costume and direction all work together in this classic 1958 production to create the impression of Puccini’s turn-of-the-century masterpiece as it was originally intended.

In La rondine’s climactic scene, when Magda explains to her young lover Ruggero why she believes she must leave him, Puccini sets their exchange to one of the most hackneyed of all musical formulas: the cycle of fifths.

Ever since I saw Angela Gheorghiu in the title role of Barbara Willis Sweete’s brilliant opera film Romeo and Juliette, this soprano has been on my must-see-no-matter-what list. However, seeing Gheorghiu live is much easier said than done.

“I will return! I want to again be intoxicated by the triumphant smile of art!” proclaims the actress Adriana Lecouvreur in the extravagant opera of the same title. With this role, the soprano Angela Gheorghiu returned to New York in the first performance of the Opera Orchestra of New York’s Carnegie Hall season.

In this Royal Opera production of Gounod's Faust, there's no question about who's in charge. Not only does the devil get all the best lines, but he bosses the show from beginning to end. Clad in feathered hat, long curly wig and reminiscent of the Laughing Cavalier, René Pape plays Mephistopheles quite superbly, alternating between mercurial bouffe comic lines and extreme sardonic nastiness.

Ever since the Royal Opera House announced that two performances of its summer revival of Jonathan Kent's production of Tosca would feature an all-star cast, opera lovers all over the world have been desperately trying to get their hands on a golden ticket.

Giacomo Puccini comprehensively eclipsed the other Italian composers of his era. Three of them remain in the repertoire as one hit wonders: Mascagni, Leoncavallo and Francesco Cilea, whose four act Adriana Lecouvreur opened at Covent Garden last night.

Read our review of Nicolas Joël's production of Puccini­'s La Rondine in its 2009 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Read our review of Franco Zeffirelli's production of Puccini's La Bohème in its 2008 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

La nouvelle production de l’Opéra Bastille marque par la qualité du plateau vocal et la beauté des costumes

Invités au salon d’Angela Gheorghiu, les mets sucrés auront eu raison de notre foie… 

Angela Gheorghiu als leidende Charlotte, Jean-Francois Borras als leidenschaftlicher Werther und das melancholische Dirigat von Frederic Chaslin sorgten zwar nicht für einen perfekten, aber hochemotionalen Abend an der Wiener Staatsoper.