The music of Riccardo Zandonai, often overshadowed by his more famous contemporaries, occupies a singular space—suggestive of a lineage between Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss, yet resisting easy classification. In Francesca da Rimini, Zandonai crafts a world that bypasses the emotional immediacy of verismo in favor of a headier, more atmospheric tapestry. The score draws upon the lyricism of Italian opera, the harmonic audacity of the German tradition, and the perfumed textures of French impressionism, resulting in a soundscape as enigmatic as it is arresting.

Raina Kabaivanska embodies the title role with a potent combination of mystery and allure, her performance finely attuned to the opera’s veiled sensuality. She finds an impassioned counterpart in Plácido Domingo, whose presence reinforces the work’s anchoring in the Italian idiom. At the podium, Eve Queler brings a keen ear for detail, allowing Zandonai’s dense and glittering orchestration to emerge with clarity and precision, never overwhelming the vocal line but rather entwining with it in evocative dialogue.