It’s not often operagoers leave humming the scenery, but that was the case Monday, when the Met hauled out Riccardo Zandonai’s “Francesca da Rimini” from the vault.
With neither a top-drawer score nor particularly memorable performances on hand, Piero Faggioni’s lavish 1984 production stole the show. Dark, brooding palace spaces and art-nouveau costumes of fluttering chiffon and jewel-tone velvet made this “Rimini” a feast for the eyes. The ears, though, soon longed for something more substantial than Zandonai’s creepy harmonies and glittery orchestration.
In this 1914 melodrama, suggested by an episode in Dante’s “Inferno,” Francesca, wife of the brutal warlord Gianciotto, develops a fatal attraction for his dreamboat younger brother, Paolo. Predictably, the stage is awash in gore before the final curtain.
Second-rate operas need terrific performers to put them over, but the Met fielded only solid utility singers. Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek looked statuesque as the tormented Francesca, but a wide vibrato dulled the impact of her singing.
Marcello Giordani’s tenor stayed true to pitch for Paolo, but was overshadowed by the bracing tones of Robert Brubaker, another tenor, as his jealous kid brother, Malatestino. The brutal Gianciotto has little to do but yell at the very top of the baritone range, a feat Mark Delavan accomplished tirelessly.
Among a vast cast of courtiers and ladies-in-waiting, soprano Dina Kuznetsova’s rich, distinctive soprano made an impact in her brief scene of farewell as Francesca’s sister Samaritana. Later, another soprano, Caitlin Lynch, chirped movingly in the last act as the devoted handmaiden Biancofiore.
Most of the musical interest in this score lies in the orchestra part, not that Marco Armiliato’s pedestrian conducting revealed many of its beauties. “Rimini” has a spotty performance history at the Met, with decades passing between revivals. This production suggests that neglect is more than justified.