Francesca da Rimini by Zandonai, Sat 05 Samh 2011, Ó (2011/2011), Faoi stiúir Tamás Juronics,, Seoltóir Sándor Gyüdi, Tamás Pál, National Theatre, Szeged, Hungary

The tragic love story that took place in the thirteenth century is the first literary expression of the contemporary Dante in the Fifth Canto of the Inferno: the third brother betrays the love of the beautiful Francesca and her unfavorably-looking lame husband, Paolo's brother, whose revenge is triggered by the fact that he himself is in love with his sister-in-law, who he strongly refuses; the love triangle turns into a bloody tragedy. Since Dante, the theme has been very popular in literature, art and music; in nineteenth-century Italy, for example, it inspired thirty different operas. Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944) is a distinguished representative of Italian opera. Puccini also held his younger colleague in high esteem; on his deathbed, he would have entrusted the completion of Turandot to him, but the heir, Tonino Puccini, decided on a lesser-known author - probably for copyright reasons, i.e. ultimately for financial reasons. As the basis for Zandonai's best-known opera, which is extremely popular in Italy, he chose the verse drama of Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863-1938), a strange and controversial figure of contemporary Italian literature, who put Francesca's story into overheated, whirlwind lines. Zandonai's score paints a captivating vision of the dark world of the thirteenth century, of beauty and love, of envy, jealousy and evil, with its free treatment of harmonies, colorful orchestration and unexpectedly unfolding, sweeping melodies.