Search - Rachmaninoff, Tchistiakov, Bolshoi Orchestra :: Francesca Da Rimini

NOT A GREAT MASTERPIECE, BUT A NEEDED RECORDING

09/25/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Rakhmaninov is not a founder of a new operatic tradition. In his operas he follows the paths of Rimskiy-Korsakov, Tchaikovskiy and Rubinstein. Francesca is the first opera he wrote after becoming the artistic director of the Bolshoi theater orchestra. The subject of Danthe's poem was very often set to music. In Rakhmaninov's version, there are only five characters, very little choral music and no long arias. There is only one musical theme, which opens up in the second act. It becomes more and more noticable, untill it reaches it's climax in Lanciotto's arioso. Before this recording, the opera was recorded twice. The Bolshoi theater's 1976 version, conducted by Mark Ermler and with Yevgeniy Nesterenko, Makvala Kasrashvili and Vladimir Atlantov is of perticular importance.In this recording, Chistiakov provides a solid, but lirical reading of the score, and the Bolshoi soloists are usialy very reliable. The onle dissaointment is the Francesca of Marina Lapina. Her voice is not opened enough, and the high notes are very thn and forced. On the other hand, Vladimir Matorin as Lanciotto is one of the most solid performers of the role. His voice is full and passionate, but not grotesque, which is surprizing, since he is mostly active in the "Russian peasent" repertoire. Vitaliy Taraschenko (Paolo) and Nikolay Vasilyev (Danthe), both leading tenors of the bolshoy today, give this performance more assets.In short, the recording is highly recomendable to the people who are interested not in very original music, but in a recording of one of the Bolshoi best reacent productions."