The Lyric Stage: Aug. 27 - Rachmaninov's "Francesca da Rimini"

Rachmaninov's Francesca da Rimini is one of at least a dozen plays and as many operas  based on Dante's brief episode about Francesca da Rimini and the subsequent enhancements to the story, though only Ricardo Zandonai's version from 1914 has held stage to any extent. While Rachmaninov's music is superb, his version has been called a symphonic tone poem with voices, better heard than seen, because the libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky is not very good. The opera premiered in 1906, two years before the composer's Second Symphony. Gianandrea Noseda conducts an all Russian cast.