Monochrome watercolour over ink, 26.5 by 17 cm (10 ½ by 6 ¾ ins)

Provenance: Christie’s, The Cecil Beaton Studio Sale, 21^st June 1988, lot 164 (part)

Beaton’s designs for the 1962 Metropolitan Opera Production of Francesco Cilea’s opera Adriana Lecouvreur are amongst his most exuberantly rococo in style. The opera is a largely fictionalised account of the life of the celebrated French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur (1692–1730). First performed in 1902, the work is often cited as having amongst the most confusing texts in opera, although it still remains in the mainstream repertoire, its titular lead being played by many of the leading sopranos of the last century. Labour strikes caused the Metropolitan Opera’s 1961-62 season to be cancelled but Beaton was still paid for his design work on the production. It was staged in the following season with a scaled back set design.