the Adriana Convex Mirror

 

The Adriana convex mirror frame is made of composite material that has been filled with resin.  I re-finished and gilded it silver leaf. Hundreds of Venetian glass rods in clear crystal layer the mirror frame.  Glass rods, spheres and cabochons finish the inner frame.

Its a beauty!

This mirror is about 12.5 inches in diameter.  It is in my studio until being shipped to one of my showrooms.

Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1849 play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. It was first performed on 6 November 1902 at the Teatro Lirico in Milan.  It is an opera that is both underrated yet packed with ravishing music.  It is also an opera where the soprano succumbs to a gift of poisoned violets, surely the first and only time that will be a plot point.

The title role in Adriana Lecouvreur has always been a favorite of sopranos with large voices, which tend to sit less at the very top of their range. This part has a relatively low tessitura, going no higher than A5, but requires great vocal power, and is a meaty and challenging one to tackle on a dramatic level – especially during the work’s so-called “Recitation” and death scene. Famous Adrianas of the past 75 years have included Claudia Muzio, Magda Olivero, Monserrat Caballé, Renata Tebaldi, Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni and Joan Sutherland. Angela Gheorghiu tackled the role at the Royal Opera House, in 2010 with Jonas Kaufmann as Maurizio. The Met presented a production new to that house by David McVicar on 31 December 2018, with Anna Netrebko in the title role, Piotr Beczala as Maurizio and Anita Rachvelishili as the Princess de Bouillon.

To witness a real “purse fight” check out the video below.

A poster for Ariadna by Aleardo Villa in 1906.

The character in the opera is based on the life of French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur( 1692-1730).  She was immensely love by the public and adored by writers and critics.

Adrienne Lecouvreur was one of the first actresses who favored a more natural, realistic and less declamatory style. She and actor Michel Baron sought for a style that was based on everyday speech, as opposed to the predominant chantante style of the time. The playwright Pierre-Francois Godard de Beauchamps wrote on a letter to Mademoiselle Lecouvreur “Finally the true triumphs and the tragic furor give way, on the Stage, to the tender, the emotionally moving. You have made us know and feel the beauty of simplicity and its treasures.”Charles Collé mentions the direct connection that Adrienne Lecouvreur created between the audience and the role itself: “She develops all the details of a role and makes us forget the actress. We see nothing but the character she represents.”
Lecouvreur took this search for a more natural style into another aspect of her work, her wardrobe. Regardless of the era in which a play had been written, it was customary for actresses to wear elaborate dresses that reflected the fashion of the time, and sophisticated plumed headdresses. Lecouvreur, however, made her first appearance at the Comedie Francaise wearing a simple Greek tunic in white satin to play Crebilllon’s Electre.

Because Adrienne was an actress( the Vatican equaled actors with prostitutes at the time)she was denied a Christian burial.  Voltaire wrote a scathing poem to protest this heartless decision.

A portrait of the real Adrienne by Antoine Coypel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The richness of the interior of Basilica San Vitale in Ravenna is truly mind boggling. All the mosaics are executed in the Hellenistic-Roman tradition: lively and imaginative, with rich colors and a certain perspective, and with a vivid depiction of the landscape, plants and birds.  And the gold!