Adriana Lecouvreur - Francesco Cilea Details

[Highly rated reviewer]

I really enjoyed this

I enjoyed this so much more than the 1984 version with Joan Sutherland that I watched some 6 months ago. There are various reaswons for this. First knowing the music better certainly helped. I really warmed to it this time and found it quite gripping and moving. It was certainly much more believable with Daniela Dessi as Adriana. She was very good. Joan Sutherland was too regal for the part. In my review of the 1984 version I said the story did not make much sense. This time I found it all much more credible. There is a central story of a love triangle ( or even quartet) with a lot of busy theatrical sort of stuff going on around it. This was all managed so much better in this production that I was not troubled by the mixture at all but liked it. I suspect the conductor made a much better job of the orchestral music which is also why I enjoyed it more. I would certainly recommend this DVD in preference to the other but even then it may take a couple of hearings to find yourself really involved by the music.