The Teatro Real returns to the classics with the successful ‘Adriana Lecouvreur’ by David McVicar | Culture

Less than two months ago, the Teatro Real in Madrid ended its 23/24 season with 19 performances of Damiano Michieletto’s production of Madame Butterfly, Puccini’s play. A staging reinterpreted as a denunciation of Asian sexual tourism and set in the heart of an oriental metropolis in the present. A proposal that aroused boos from some sections of the public after its premiere. Something similar to what the Rigoletto (Verdi) by Miguel del Arco, a contemporary version against heteropatriarchy, which premiered a few months earlier. Or the Medea (Cherubini) by Paco Azorín, who came on stage wearing a black hijab, sunglasses and an explosive belt, at the start of last season. For its debut this year, Real presents the Adriana Lecouvreur by David McVicar, which since its premiere at London’s Covent Garden in 2010, has triumphed on the world’s most important stages. An opera by Francesco Ciela that debuted in Milan in 1902 and which will arrive at the Madrid coliseum for the first time on September 23.

The production respects the 18th-century atmosphere of the original story, with 18th-century costumes by Brigitte Reiffenstuel and sets by Charles Edwards that recreate a baroque setting on the stage of the neoclassical Real. Its main cast will feature such renowned voices as Ermonela Jaho, in the title role; Brian Jagde, in the role of Maurizio; Nicola Alaimo, who will play Michonnet; or the renowned mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, who will make her debut in this space with the role of the Princess of Bouillon. All under the direction of Nicola Luisotti.

The show, based on the play of the same name by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé, is the most famous opera by the Italian composer Francesco Cilea (1866-1950), and the only one still in the repertoire today. “It is the only fully-realised opera by Cilea,” said Nicola Luisotti, the musical director of the work, this Friday on the stage of the theatre at the presentation of the production. Its plot dramatizes the true story of the actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, a very important figure in the Comédie Française, who died of unknown causes (some say poisoned) at the age of 38. “She is surely the French actress of her time who acted in the most truthful way,” says Charles Edwards, behind the baroque curtains that he himself created.

The first cast will feature Ermonela Jaho, one of the world’s leading sopranos, particularly renowned for her acting talent, who has already performed in the most important theatres in the world. “Adriana is a complete character, with all the human feelings, which allows me to give everything as an actress, singer and artist. To give my soul and my truth. I trust that the audience will connect with that,” she says. At her side, playing the role of Maurizio, the Count of Saxony in love with Adriana, is the American tenor Brian Jagde. They already shared the stage in the same version of the work in Vienna last year and now they are repeating it, also accompanied by the newcomer at the Teatro Real Elīna Garanča. “We are like a family. We laugh and have a lot of fun, it is wonderful,” says the American about the stage that is set in the Paris of the Enlightenment.

Charles Edwards, the set designer, defends the importance of focusing on the original setting: “It is very common to see productions adapted to modern times and it gives the impression that if you respect the original period you are old-fashioned, but delicate works like this lose their meaning if you don’t do it.” Despite its setting, Joan Matabosch, artistic director of the Teatro Real, finds in the work a modernity “very characteristic” of its creator, David McVicar, now represented at the Madrid theatre by his assistant Justin Way, in charge of the staging in Madrid. “Putting someone in jeans does not guarantee that they are modern; in some of the worst and oldest productions you can see on stage, everyone is in jeans,” he says.

According to Nicola Luisotti, the late arrival in Madrid is explained by the enormous complexity of the work. “Although it seems easy to listen to, it is a very difficult opera to do. It is very difficult for musicians and singers to make it stick in our memory. We needed a team with a lot of desire to do it,” says the principal guest director of the theatre, who faces his last season in that position. The show can be seen between 23 September and 11 August in 13 performances with two alternating casts. “It was about time,” says Joan Matabosch, who Adriana Lecouvreur will arrive at the Teatro Real in Madrid.