Firmly associated with the verismo repertoire, Opera Holland Park gave its first performances of Francesco Cilea’s potboiler Adriana Lecouvreur in 2002, the centenary year of its composition. What seemed a rare novelty then seems rather less of one now as OHP’s new production is given in the wake of a high-profile 2010 Covent Garden revival in which Angela Gheorghiu played — type casting or what! — the flamboyant diva at its centre.

Giving a feisty and full-blooded account of the role this time is the Australian soprano Cheryl Barker, who dominates from her first entry, fag in hand, singing of her status as merely “the poet’s handmaid” to a glorious melody that stays her theme throughout. Adriana, an actress rather than a singer, is based on a real-life performer in Paris’s Comédie Française, with a very chequered romantic history.

Straying wildly from the facts here, the story places this femme fatale in a love triangle in which — perhaps a little surprisingly — she proves to be the victim.

Rivalling her for the attentions of Maurizio, Count of Saxony (Peter Auty) is the Princess de Bouillon (Tiziana Carraro). Having publicly insulted the aristocrat, by spitting lines from Racine’s Phèdre at her, condemning lustful women, Adriana tragically pays with her life. Her end — surely unique in opera — comes through a bunch of poisoned violets.

With much disguising and general confusion, the plot is hard to follow. It is best perhaps simply to enjoy what is supplied musically under conductor Manlio Benzi. A touching portrait of Adriana’s devoted dresser Michonnet from Richard Burkhard is one of the outstanding singing performances.

Adriana Lecouvreur
Opera Holland Park
Until Saturday
Tickets: 0300 999 1000