Adina

Adina may refer to:

Adina (plant)

Adina is a genus of 7 species of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family. They are shrubs or small trees, native to East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Description

Adina is a genus of shrubs and small trees. The terminal vegetative buds are inconspicuous and loosely surrounded by the stipules. The stipules are bifid for at least 2/3 of their length. The corolla lobes are nearly valvate in bud, being subimbricate at the apex. The anthers are basifixed and introrse. The ovary has two locules, with up to four ovules per locule.

Taxonomy

Adina was named by Richard Salisbury in 1807 in his book, The Paradisus Londinensis. The genus name is derived from the Ancient Greek word adinos, meaning "clustered, crowded". It refers to the tightly clustered heads of flowers. The biological type for Adina consists of the specimens that Salisbury called Adina globiflora. These are now included in the species Adina pilulifera.Molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that Adina is paraphyletic over Adinauclea, a monospecific genus from Sulawesi and the Moluccas.

Adina (opera)

Adina is an operatic farsa in one act by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Marchese Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini. The opera develops the popular theme of the "abduction from the seraglio". The première took place on 22 June 1826 at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lisbon.

Composition history

Adina was commissioned in 1818 by Diego Ignazio de Pina Manique, police superintendent of Lisbon and inspector of Portuguese theatres. The plot is very similar to that of Francesco Basili's 1819 opera, Il califfo e la schiava, for which the libretto was written by Felice Romani, and some passages occur in both librettos - a mystery which has not yet been unravelled.

The opera was intended as a gift for a now unknown soprano who had apparently enthralled the superintendent with her performances at São Carlos. The contract Rossini made was for a quick completion of the work, and the opera was finished in 1818, but, as a result of this time constraint, not all of the music in the opera is entirely original. According to the 2001 critical edition of the score by Fabrizio della Seta, "Rossini composed anew only four of the work's nine numbers: the Introduction, the disarming Cavatina for Adina "Fragolette fortunate" (Lucky little strawberries), the Quartet, and the Finale; for three others he turned to the opera Sigismondo written in 1814; the remaining two were written by a collaborator."