Royal Opera House, London WC2; Portsmouth Cathedral There is a deliciously topical moment in the sensationally lavish new production of Francesco Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur , which opened to a rapturous reception at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, last week. The hero, Maurizio, Count of Saxony, takes the eponymous heroine in his arms and asks: "Will you take my illustrious name?" Swooning, she replies that together they would be "destined for a throne". We had wall-to-wall coverage all week of another couple "destined for a throne", who emerged all smiles in a blizzard of flash photography to tell the waiting world of their engagement. Poor Adriana never gets to tell the world anything. Within minutes of Maurizio's proposal, in the best operatic tradition, she lies dying, slain by a jealous rival whose choice of murder weapon – poisoned violets – has to be among the strangest ever devised. David McVicar's brilliant production of this opera is only the second to be staged a...
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