And also in the August issue of About the House there are a lot of details about how the sets for Adriana Lecouvreur would look like. Under the title "GRAND DESIGNS", Michael Church asks Charles Edwards to explain his concept for the set.
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Edwards says that he and McVicar were attracred to this particular opera because it's "centered on a prima donna, and one of its themes is celebrity". "So Angela Gheorghiu is good casting?" asks Church. "Perfect casting. It's being built round her personality, which is absolutely appropriate for the piece, as is her voice" replies Edwards.
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The set designer said it was difficult to find an arch to unite the four acts. So they came with the idea of a theatre within a theatre and it had to be set in 1730 when Adriana lived. The sets change as follows: the backstage of a theatre, a love-nest in the gardens of the Princess who is Adriana's rival, then her ballroom and in the end Adriana's villa in the countryside.
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Asked about the feel the created world would have, Charles Edwards says that "Everything will be from Adriana's perspective - perhaps a little bit blurred. Because this is a woman who can't always distinguish between the reality of everyday life, and her life on the stage. But our structure will look more like a toy theatre than a reconstruction of an 18th centrury stage, though there will be 18th century stage machinery in it. It's a delicate and rather exotic machine in which she lives - like a gilded cage, a prison, in which she has the toys to play out her fantasies. I've based my designs very much on the old Baroque theatre in Bayreuth, where there's a lot of trompe l'oeil. And that's the effect we will create. For example, to create the boudoir where the Princess intends to entertain her lover we will have painted swagged curtains juxtaposed with built architectural detail".
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Already curious? The tickets go on sale on September 8th for Friends and on October 5th for general public.
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