Beautiful Paolo (Jonathan Tetelman) seduces Francesca (Sara Jakubiak) Photo: Monika Rittershaus
By Sebastian Bauer
Riccardo Zandonai’s musically challenging and almost forgotten work was successfully rediscovered at the Deutsche Oper.
It’s no wonder that Riccardo Zandonai’s opera “Francesca da Rimini” (1914) is performed so seldom, given that the overwhelming abundance of musical styles and thematic cross-references demands something almost inhuman from the singers and orchestra.
But at the Deutsche Oper, Christof Loy’s staging is precisely the masterpiece that was finally allowed to premiere in front of an audience after the Corona-Online compromise. The rediscovery in Johannes Leiacker’s elegant country house setting was a triumph!
We meet Francesca (phenomenal: soprano Sara Jakubiak), who is to marry Gianciotto (strong: baritone Ivan Inverardi). But in order to foist the ugly husband on her, his beautiful brother Paolo (sensational: tenor Jonathan Tetelman) is passed off as him.
What follows is a rollercoaster ride of passion, revenge and bloody civil war turmoil. The orchestra, conducted by Ivan Repusic, brilliantly tames the change in style between romantic harmonies, march music and Wagner opera.
A crazy ride that inspires!
Again: 26.+29.5.23 and 1.+3.6.23