Riccardo ZANDONAI (1883-1944)
Francesca da Rimini - Opera in four Acts after Gabriele
D'Annunzio (1913) [133:26]
Christina Vasileva (soprano) - Francesca da Rimini
Martin Mühle (tenor) - Paolo il bello
Juan Orozco (baritone) - Gianciotto
Adriano Graziani (tenor) - Malatestino
Kim-Lillian Strebel (soprano) - Garsenda
Bénédicte Tauran (soprano) - Biancofiore
Sally Wilson (mezzo) - Adonella (Donella)
Marija Jokovic (mezzo)- Altichiara
Viktória Mester (mezzo) - Samaritana, Smaragdi
Levente Molnár (baritone) - Torrigiano, Ostasio
Aaron Judisch (tenor) - Ser Toldo
Alejandra Lárraga Schleske (baritone) - Fahrender Sänger
Se Hun Jin - Schütze, Gefangener
Freiburger Kammerchor, Opern und Extrachor des Theater Freiburg, Vokalensemble
der Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg/Fabrice
Bollon
rec. Konzerthaus Freiburg, Rolf Böhme Saal, Freiburg Germany, 18-23 July 2013
CPO 777960-2 [57:32 + 75:54]
This was the first time I had listened to Riccardo Zandonai's
Francesca da Rimini. Zandonai belongs to that unlucky group of artists
feted in their lifetimes and whose reputation struggles to live on after them.
What reputation Zandonai has rests almost entirely upon this work. By the
time of his death in 1944 he had written some thirteen operas. Look in the
record catalogue today and apart from a few - mainly archival - versions of
this opera only two others seem to have been recorded at all; I cavalieri
di Ekebù and Conchita and again in broadcast/historical versions. Yet Zandonai
was the composer allegedly favoured by Puccini to complete Turandot
- a proposal vetoed by Tonio Puccini on the grounds - again allegedly - that
Zandonai's fame might eclipse that of the dead Puccini.
I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this work. An analogy might be of
the kind of chunky thriller you take to read on a beach holiday. It might
not be literature of the highest order, but it's a compelling page-turner
that holds your interest from first to breathless last. Zandonai seems to
have hit just about the perfect scale for the work too; four acts lasting
a total of two hours each with a distinct mood and character that build to
exciting set-piece climaxes. Zandonai was just 30 when he was commissioned
by Ricordi to write the opera. The libretto was written by Tito Riccordi after
Gabriele D'Annunzio's scandalous 1901 drama. In turn this was
an elaboration of the few verses in Dante's Divine Comedy
where the fated lovers, Francesca and Paolo, are encountered in one of the
outer circles of Hell. Francesca has fascinated several Romantic composers
from Tchaikovsky and Arthur
Foote - in symphonic poem form - and Rachmaninov
in a one-act opera first performed in 1906. Rachmaninov uses a compact two
tableaux form framed by a prologue and epilogue in Hell but in essence the
narrative is similar. Ricordi/Zandonai eschew the supernatural sequence and
plunge the listener straight into the action.
Very briefly the narrative is as follows; Act I - Francesca da Rimini (soprano)
is tricked into marrying the deformed Giovanni Malatesta (baritone) when his
brother Paolo (the beautiful) (tenor) masquerades as his older brother. Act
II - The Malatesta family, including another scheming brother Malatestino
(tenor) have to defend their castle against the feuding Ghibellines. Paolo
protests to Francesca that he too was tricked into the ruse before rushing
off to defend the castle. Malatestino is brought in from the battle injured
having lost an eye. Act III - Francesca and her handmaids are passing the
time reading the Grail Romances - specifically the episode of the forbidden
love between Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. Paolo enters, declares his love
and she begs him not to tempt her. In a diversion she turns again to the story
but it opens at the point where Guinevere and Lancelot kiss - as do Francesca
and Paolo. Act IV - Malatestino declares his love also for Francesca and suggests
she kill her husband - and he threatens to reveal his knowledge of the love
between Paolo and her which he ultimately does when questioned by Giovanni.
Francesca is sleeping only to be awoken by Paolo. As they embrace Giovanni
enters intending to kill his brother, Francesca steps between them and is
impaled on Giovanni sword, he then stabs Paolo as the curtain falls.
What the bare bones of this plot outline don't reveal is the skill
with which Ricordi/Zandonai mix solos, small ensembles, full chorus and orchestral
interludes. At the time of the work's creation verismo was still the
dominant style in Italian opera. Zandonai follows this to a substantial degree
with musical lines following the shapes and rhythms of the natural speech.
The cast of characters rather removes the work from pure verismo concerned
as it was with the lives of 'ordinary' folk in 'ordinary'
situations but across the operatic world the age of the Renaissance seems
to have spawned a host of operatic plots from Korngold's Violanta
(a very similar narrative dating from 1914) to Schreker's Die
Gezeichneten or even Goldschmidt's much later Beatrice
Cenci.
I rather like the concept of a lover's quadrangle too - the addition
of the Malatestino brother brings to both the plot and the palette of voices
an interesting additional variation - especially when he is singing in the
same range as his brother. It stops it being just a 'good'
tenor, 'villain' baritone and 'wronged' soprano.
That said, this is very much Francesca's opera - she is present onstage
for the majority of the work and Zandonai makes substantial acting and vocal
demands on her. She has to sing everything from passionate duets to fragile
prayers.
Which brings me all importantly to this specific performance. As mentioned,
I have no other frame of reference against which to judge but this strikes
me as a splendid performance and recording in every respect. Leading this
roll-call of excellence is Bulgarian-born soprano Christina Vasileva. Vasileva
has been a member of the Freiburg company since 2011 and she is a tremendous
asset. This is a role that demands a dramatic soprano and this is
exactly what we are given here. As required she can cover the required wide
range of vocal and acting from hushed simplicity to stand-and-deliver power
with ever shade of vocal colour in between.
As an aside - an undoubted weakness in the opera's structure is Francesca
who is the only character who goes on any kind of journey through the course
of the work. The three brothers stick true to their essential stereotypes
and all the other roles simply act as functional plot developers. Having said
that the three brothers lack much in the way of three-dimensionality it has
to noted that the singers in these roles are powerful, distinctive and provide
strong foils to Vasileva. Love-interest Paolo is sung by tenor Martin Mühle.
He might not have the most sheerly beautiful voice but he delivers ardent
committed singing that matches Vasileva at all the crucial moments. Likewise
both Juan Orozco as Giacomo the jealous husband and Adriano Graziani as the
scheming Malatestino make the most of their more limited roles. In fact the
scene in the final act where Malatestino taunts Giacomo with the revelation
of Paulo midnight trysts with Francesca is thrilling.
Backing up all of the principals are very good secondary role singers as well
as chorus work that is well judged and effective both in conception and execution.
The list of solo parts shows that Zandonai wrote for a large cast of primary
and secondary roles and a particular strength of this set is the quality of
the performances across the cast. I liked particularly the singing of the
roles of Francesca's handmaids who are given several opportunities
to shine in their own right as well as providing the expected foil for her
character. Zandonai uses plenty of instrumental colour too - the full score
can be viewed at IMSLP - with interesting touches of 'historical'
colour including an onstage instrumental group which includes a viola pomposa
(basically a 4-string viola with a higher 5th string tuned like the violin's
E string) and lute. All of these effects are extremely well played by Freiburg
orchestra and equally well caught by the CPO engineers. The work of the latter
team is especially noteworthy since this would seem to have been recorded
at a series of live performances - the very occasional ghostly cough can be
heard, but there is no audience applause. Aside from this very slight extraneous
noise there are none of the usual problems that can diminish the impact of
live opera; there is little or no stage noise, no issues with voices moving
away from microphones and no apparent issues of vocal fatigue. Better still,
the balance between pit and stage is effectively and convincingly managed
and the orchestra is recorded with an attractive bloom. Conductor Fabrice
Bollon has been music director of the Freiburg Opera since 2008 and clearly
he has built the house into an impressive musical unit. He conducts this opera
with a sure and certain sense of the flow of the drama; climaxes are well
judged and the entire piece has exactly the right ebb and flow. I see that
other CPO recordings are Cilea's L'Arlesiana with Goldmark's
Die Königin von Saba due a Spring 2016 release. On the strength of
this release I would be interested to hear both of those recordings.
As mentioned, the orchestral score can be viewed online which I have not followed
from start to end. I believe that this is a complete and uncut version of
the score but I do not know if this is definitely the case or if earlier recordings
did impose any cuts. In the slim liner booklet - in German and English only
- CPO provide a short description of the work's genesis and a synopsis
as well as the complete libretto in the original Italian and English. Usefully,
they include many of the stage directions that add a certain grand guignol
drama to proceedings. The closing - rather swift dénouement - is described
thus; "Giovanni... draws his sword, and rushes towards Paolo with a terrible
impetus. In a flash Francesca throws herself between the two, but since her
husband has put his entire weight into the blow and cannot stay it, the blade
runs through her chest....[she] seals her dying lips with [Paolo's]
lips. Wild with grief and rage, he deals another mortal blow to his brother's
side. The two lovers continue to embrace, they do not utter a cry, joined
together they fall to the ground." This is such a wonderfully florid
description that I doubt any modern staging could really embrace the melodrama
it demands.
Latterday critical reception of the work seems mixed at best. Opera Today
reviewing a version at the Met rather sniffily characterised the piece as
"a one-act pot-boiler buried in a four act sarcophagus." I must
admit I do not hear the work like that at all. Agreed that Zandonai seems
unable to produce a stream of memorable melody in the way that some of his
exact contemporaries could but once one accepts that works that are not out
of the very top drawer can still be of considerable value and give great enjoyment
then this is well worth a listen. Taking other reviews of previous recordings
at face value - I must repeat this is my first and only encounter with this
work - it would seem that this new recording is an exceptionally strong contender
for being best of the current available versions. An excellent introduction
to the gaudy and glorious world of Zandonai's penny-marvellous.
Nick Barnard
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