Met - Adriana Lecouvreur (Netrebko)

[Dave2002]

Very strange - and trying to work it out from the plot synopsis beforehand was next to impossible. In the end it was really good, and the plot almost made sense.
Not sure how Adriana was able to sing so loudly before the poison finally took hold, nor why nobody else died from contact with it, but that's opera, I guess.

[Ein Heldenleben]

I don't think you look to AL for narrative logic . I asked my wife why Maurizio doesn't die after kissing AL who has kissed the poisoned violets .." Maybe she inhaled the poison" ...

[verismissimo]

Really it's operatic tosh of the verismo variety, a vehicle for two divas and a divo. They certainly delivered the goods in a production by David McVicar that seemed to have sprung fully formed from an earlier era.

If it had been composed by Puccini, he would have made the plot seem less tangled, the motivations more clear. And there was an irritating one second gap between sound and picture throughout - the fault of the Phoenix or the Met?

[Ein Heldenleben]

The synchronisation was fine in the cinema I was in so it was either a local problem or a problem in distribution . I think last night confirmed my feelings after watching Cav and Pag - Puccini is head and shoulders above the rest of the verismo field.

[Dave2002]

No significant synchronisation problems where we went. Complain to the cinema management. I enjoyed it - but I can't remember a single "tune"!

There were some particular level discrepancies in the scene where some of the cast (much lower valume levels) were rearranging furniture and props in the theatre within the theatre - and then the main protagonists took over again.

I also wondered whether the sound quality was as good in the live version as in some of the trailers for future productions. Presumably the trailers can be done without an audience - probably at rehearsals, and the sound can be optimised. In the live presentations the sound is sometimes far too loud, and not always very refined - though again that may depend on the particular venue.

[Conchis]

A rubbishy piece, sheer Italian junk food, but it can come up trumps with the right production and the right singers.

I saw the premiere of the Covent Garden McVicar production with a(n unusually on form) Gheorghiu and Kaufmann back in 2010. It was marvellous.

[Dave2002]

Really it's operatic tosh of the verismo variety, a vehicle for two divas and a divo. They certainly delivered the goods in a production by David McVicar that seemed to have sprung fully formed from an earlier era.

Divo is a word which I've not really heard used before last night. Yes - it does mean a male opera star.

Also what sounded like bocca di lupo, but was perhaps this "in bocca al lupo" which seems to be the Italian equivalent of "break a leg".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_bocca_al_lupo Into the mouth of the wolf

The response Crepi il lupo! - may the wolf die, or shortened to just Crepi! - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crepi_il_lupo

These phrases were new to me. It was amusing that one of the three Italian performers interviewed either couldn't speak English, or didn't want to. One might have imagined that could have been checked beforehand, but we understood enough of what he said to find that funny. His performance (Michonnet) was very enjoyable and one of the best.

[Constantbee]

If you didn't hear it, the interval quiz was fun. Contestants were invited to rank the efficacy of famous operatic poison doses in terms of the length of time they took to act. Not as easy as you might think, but some impressive answers were received