Our New York operavores, Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes, caught Zandonai’s potboiler at the Met this weekend. She was totally bored by the music. He found one singer that he liked. Oh, the fights between them, the fights…. Read them here.
Send the Met’s Francesca straight back to Rimini
March 12, 2013 by
I so enjoy this pair’s reviews! I’m glad I’m not the only one who wonders about the staging in some operas…producers don’t realise how distracting this can be… There are quite a few mediocre operas that one can chalk up to experience. Then there are the awaited operas, which bitterly disappoint. Best of all are those which surprise & delight, as did ENO’s Medea last week!
It’s a star vehicule à la Spontini’s Vestale. Alagna sang it in Paris a couple of years ago and the whole thing ws pretty much instantly forgotten there, too.
I am very familiar with Francesca, one of the opera’s I do like very, very much! I saw the production in Paris – the singing was good, but didn’t like the staging. We had Francesca in Amsterdam, concertante, it was sang by Nelly Miricioiu and Kaludi Kaludov, As special guest we had Magda Olivero in the audience, herself one of the best Francesca’s in the history. Ms. Miricioiu has studied the role with her.
I’m eager to see it Saturday at the movies – it’s an old production which I saw few times on dvd, with Scotto and Domingo.