Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Francesca da Rimini

This is from Wikipedia on Francesca da Rimini:

• 1308-1321 Divine Comedy. (Inferno, Canto V), Dante
• 1819 Paolo and Francesca. Oil on canvas, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Musée Turpin de Crissé, Angers, France
• 1870 The Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta. Oil on canvas, Alexandre Cabanel, Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
• 1876 Francesca de Rimini. Symphonic Poem, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• 1888 The Kiss. marble sculpture, Auguste Rodin, Musée Rodin, Paris.
• 1901 Francesca da Rimini, Gabriele D'Annunzio (tragedy, written for Eleonora Duse)
• 1906 Francesca da Rimini. Opera, Sergei Rachmaninoff

This is from a description of the opera video from the Met:

Legendary tenor Placido Domingo delivers an exceptional performance in this video, which records a 1984 performance by New York's Metropolitan Opera of Riccardo Zandonai's lush romantic story. Renata Scotto also stars in this production, which was praised for its elaborate sets and costumes, as well as the superb performances (and vocals) of Domingo and Scotto and James Levine's outstanding musical direction. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

So which is it? Rough guide says Rachmaninoff. House of Opera and the Met say Zandonai. How am I supposed to know? Are they two different operas?

3 comments:

Giorgia said...

> Are they two different operas?

Yes. Actually, there are three: one's "Francesca da Rimini" by Rachmaninoff, forst performed in 1906, another is "Francesca da Rimini" by Zandonai, first performed in 1914. But before the two of them, in 1882, there'd been a "Françoise de Rimini" by Ambroise Thomas, too...

Giorgia said...

f*i*rst performed - sorry, bloody typos!! ;-)

Dr.B said...

Thanks. I consulted several sources, and in every case only one was referred to. None of them seemed to know that the other one existed. The story is a perfect opera plot.