"Poveri fiori" as Adriana Lecouvreur exclaims!
A contextual footnote. if you happen not to be as taken by 'opera lirica' as with orchids: "On her birthday, Adriana Lecouvreur is sent a package which she believes is from Maurizio. Depressed and suicidal because of Maurizio's betrayal of their love, her mood is made worse when she opens the package and finds that it contains the decrepit remains of the violets that she gave Maurizio some time ago as a sign of their love. She sings to them of her sorrow. Little does she know, however, that the package is from Maurizio's other love, the Princesse de Bouillon, who has soaked the flowers in poison". Now that is good, old fashioned melodrama for you....and, please, do remember: "it ain't over, before the fat lady has sung"!
