Illustration by Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Paolo and Francesca da Rimini: “A watercolor painting that depicts the lovers embracing, drifting through hell, and Dante and Virgil looking on”.
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Berliner Philharmonie, Herbert-von-Karajan-Straße, Berlin
It would have been interesting to have had the Barber after The Wrath of God – as a soulful riposte to Sofia Gubaidulina’s “thoroughly uncompromising” (Kirill Petrenko) score. In the former he favoured a flowing and intimate approach arriving seamlessly at the climax, and was somewhat numbed in the reprise. The Gubaidulina (2019) is cinematic – swathes of dissonant brass, alarm-bells/militaristic percussion, scorched earth sonorities, shadows, panic – music that makes an impact but is open-ended and discursive, even over fifteen minutes. Lasting an hour or so, Rachmaninov’s one-Act Francesca da Rimini, to a libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky (the composer’s brother) after Dante, begins like The Isle of the Dead and ends anticipating the third movement of The Bells – from desolate, atmospheric and painterly to demonic and chilling. The drama comes from the emotions expressed, powerfully scenic and revealing of circumstances and dark passions. There are though passages of brightness and lightness, and Francesca is given some ravishing music, beautifully sung here, but then the whole cast was excellent and Petrenko led an impressive performance from all concerned. Cast and synopsis below.
Galina Cheplakova soprano (Francesca)
Dmytro Popov tenor (Paolo Malatesta)
Dmitry Golovnin tenor (Dante Alighieri)
Vladislav Sulimsky baritone (Lanceotto Malatesta)
Ilia Kazakov bass (Ghost of Vergil)
Rundfunkchor Berlin
“Making their way through the Circles of Hell, Dante and the ghost of Virgil come to a place of whirlwinds where they meet the spirits of those damned by lust. Here they meet Francesca and her lover Paolo and their story is retold. In life, Francesca is married to a great warrior, Lanceotto Malatesta. Lanceotto has had many successes in battle, but these bring him no joy, as he is tortured by jealousy and fear that his wife loves his younger brother Paolo, whom he had originally sent to woo Francesca on her father’s advice. Francesca had not realised Paolo was representing his older brother and had exchanged vows with the younger man believing she was to marry him. She now accepts she is Lanceotto’s wife, but cannot pretend to show him love. Lanceotto sets a trap. He announces he must leave for war, and commits his wife to his brother’s care. To entertain Francesca in her husband’s absence, Paolo reads her the story of Lancelot and Guinevere and, as he reads, connects the tale to their own situation. When he arrives at the point where Lancelot and Guinevere embrace and kiss, Francesca yields herself to him. At that moment, Lanceotto rushes in and stabs them both to death. As Dante and Virgil listen to the end of this story, the screams of the dying lovers mingle with the cries of all the other souls of the damned streaming past in the whirlwind. The two poets are left meditating on Francesca and Paolo’s refrain: ‘There is no greater sadness in the world than to remember a time of joy in a time of grief’.”
https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Sofia-Gubaidulina-The-Wrath-of-God/104483