DVD SET

Francesca da Rimini

Libretto Modeste Tchaikovsky after Dante
La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Conductor Mikhail Tatarnikov
Directed by Kirsten Dehlholm
Lancelotto Malatesta Dimitris Tiliakos
Francesca, his wife Anna Nechaeva
Paolo, his brother Sergey Semishkur
Virgil’s Shadow Alexander Vassiliev
Dante Dmitry Golovnin
BelAir ClassicsBuy on Presto Music

Aleko, The Miserly Knight and Francesca da Rimini are the only operas Sergei Rachmaninov completed. They are gathered here in an exceptional production by Kirsten Dehlholm and her visual arts collective Hotel Pro Forma under the name “Rachmaninov Troïka”.

Fantastic and flamboyant trilogy

Classiquenews.com

Musically, a real firework display.

ForumOpéra.com

Three operas performed with dramatic intelligence, vocal range and direction that do them justice.

Classica

Rachmaninov represents the waning of Romanticism in Russia yet, even by Russian standards, he was extremely fatalistic. His three one-act operas with libretti based on writings by Pushkin and Dante are linked by their theme : fate follows in the footsteps of sin, whether it be a matter of jealous murder, greed or illicit passion.

This triptych is a production of La Monnaie and is conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov and directed by Kirsten Dehlholm.