As a kind of addendum to its month of Sunday operas, The Princeton Festival is offering, for today only, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s rarely-heard one-acter “Francesca da Rimini,” streamed as part its special COVID-imposed “Virtually Yours” season.
When “Francesca” was presented at McCarter Theatre in 2012, it was as the first half of a double-bill with Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” – clever programming, since both works have ties to Dante.
As always with the Princeton Festival, the production was well-performed and staged, with, in this instance, evocative medieval sets and costumes. Also, in its vision of Hell, I remember thinking at the time that it was very much of a piece with the famous paintings and illustrations inspired by “Inferno.”
The lighting is a bit dim in this archival video, but it’s still worth watching, and certainly worth hearing. All in all, a good opera to get you in the spirit for St. John’s Eve…
https://princetonfestival.org/digital-event/rachmaninoffs-francesca-da-rimini/
Here’s a preview I wrote for the Trenton Times:
https://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/2012/06/princeton_festivals_operatic_t.html
The last of this year’s Princeton Festival operas, “The Flying Dutchman,” featuring bass-baritone Mark Delavan, will stream this Sunday at 1 p.m. EDT. For more information and a complete schedule, look online at princetonfestival.org.