Sat. 1pm. ET – Adriana Lecouvreur by 19th and 20th Century Italian composer Francesco Cilea. on The Metropolitan Opera Matinee. WRUU – 107.5 is Savannah’s home for this radio tradition that goes back to 1931. 01/12/2019

Sat. 1pm. ET – Adriana Lecouvreur by 19th and 20th Century Italian composerFrancesco Cilea. WRUU – 107.5 is Savannah’s home for this radio tradition that goes back to 1931.

Paris, 1730. Backstage at the Comédie-Française, the director Michonnet and the company prepare for performance, in which both Adriana Lecouvreur and her rival, Mademoiselle Duclos, will appear. The Prince of Bouillon and the Abbé de Chazeuil enter, looking for Duclos, who is the prince’s mistress. They encounter Adriana and compliment her, but she says that she is merely the servant of the creative spirit (“Io son l’umile ancella”). The Prince hears that Duclos is writing a letter to someone and arranges to have it intercepted. Left alone with Adriana, Michonnet confesses his love to her, only to be told that she is in love with Maurizio, whom she believes to be an officer in the service of the Count of Saxony. Maurizio enters, declaring his love for Adriana (“La dolcissima effigie”), and the two arrange to meet after the performance. Adriana gives him a bouquet of violets as a pledge of her love. During the performance, the prince intercepts the letter from Duclos, in which she asks for a meeting with Maurizio, who is in fact the Count of Saxony himself. And so it continues…….