Francesca Da Rimini is a very interesting opera especially for the music is just beautiful especially the long cello solo. For productions of the opera, there are only two to my knowledge, but the one to see is the 1985 performance with Renata Scotto, Placido Domingo and Cornell MacNeil, which is superb in every way. This production is also very good, if not as dramatically intense. The costumes and sets are very striking to look at, and captured by well above-average video directing. The staging has its compelling moments but the earlier production has much more intensity. The orchestral playing is appropriately lush and powerful, and is authoritatively conducted. The three leads are impressive. Fabio Armiliato does fare the weakest I think but he is far from bad. He does have a ringing and brightly-tuned tenor voice and is perhaps more youthful than Domingo(though for me not as handsome), but as an actor he is not on Domingo's level. Armiliato is rather stolid here while Domingo completely lives the role. Daniela Dessi fares much better. I do think her voice appeals to me more than Scotto's, who I do respect but her voice in 1985 did have an acidic quality that is not going to please everybody. Whereas Dessi, even with her occasionally too wide vibrato, has a warmer tone to her voice. She is not quite as good dramatically as Scotto, but she is at least impassioned and involving, and she like Scotto has great musicianship. As the evil brother Gianciotto, Alberto Mastromorino is probably the most consistent of the three leads. He has a very resonant voice, a little more so than the past-prime but still brilliant MacNeil, that has beauty but also succeeds in sounding evil too. He is an excellent actor too, on equal with MacNeil in the chills factor. The supporting cast also do very well. In conclusion, not the best production but a worthy one that makes its mark. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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