A tragic romance described in Dante’s Inferno is the subject of the opera Francesca da Rimini
A rare revival of the ravishingly beautiful production of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini will be streamed to Orcas Center from The Met: Live in HD on Sunday, March 17th at 1:00 pm.
Riccardo Zandonai’s masterpiece Francesca da Rimini returns to the Met for the first time in more than 25 years. Piero Faggioni’s production, which sets the action in Renaissance Italy, stars Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek and Italian tenor Marcello Giordani as Francesca and Paolo, the star-crossed lovers whose doomed romance is inspired by an episode in Dante’s Inferno.
Francesca da Rimini was a contemporary of Dante in the late 13th century. As legend has it, she was forced into a political marriage with a brutal, much older man, and in the process fell madly in love with her brother-in-law. Eventually, the husband caught the two in the midst of passion and murdered them both. With a story like that one, immortalized by Dante, it’s easy to see how Francesca’s fate has been evoked by music ranging from Zandonai’s opera and a Tchaikovsky tone poem to a 21st-century pop song.
Marco Armiliato conducts a cast that also includes the American baritone Mark Delavan as Gianciotto, Francesca’s brutal husband, and American tenor Robert Brubaker as the wicked Malatestino. American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky hosts the transmission and conducts backstage interviews with the stars. (Running time: approximately 213 minutes, including three intermissions.)
“From the moment the curtain rises you are awed by Ezio Frigerio’s towering, grandly detailed sets, designed for a 1984 resurrection of a work neglected since 1918. Franca Squarciapino’s costumes delight your eyes. Zandonai’s luxuriously orchestrated music caresses your ears.” The New York Times
Tickets for The Met: Live in HD’s Francesca da Rimini are $18, $13 students, $2 off for Orcas Center members, and may be purchased at www.orcascenter.org or by calling 376-2281 ext. 1 or visiting the Orcas Center Box Office open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from noon – 4 pm. For more information about Orcas Center 2013 season events, please visit www.orcascenter.org.
