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| Composers Biography |
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Francesco Cilea
[ Life | Works | Operas | Photo Gallery | Home Page] |
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Italian composer and teacher who studied at the Naples Conservatoire and who, after two rather unsuccessful attempts at composing opera, supported himself by teaching in Florence and in Palermo. Later he became director of Naples Conservatoire, a position he retained until he retired in 1936. Cilea achieved a certain amount of success with the opera "Adriana Lecouvreur" (1902) which is still performed. 
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The 4-act opera Adriana Lecouvreur, with a libretto by Arturo Colautti, is based on the play by the French writers Scribe and Legouvé. The action takes place in Paris and is the tragic story of the actress Adriana Lecouvreur and her lover Maurizio, Count of Saxony. The best known arias from the opera are for the soprano Adriana, her "Io son' l'umile ancella" (I am the humble handmaid), in which she expresses her humility as an interpreter of the words of Corneille, and her tragically ironic "Poveri fiori", when she receives from Maurizio the flowers that she had given him, now withered, and poisoned by her rival.
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The Operas of F. Cilea
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