| Giovanni, the lame | } | sons of Malatesta da Verrucchio | { | Baritone |
| Paolo, the beautiful | } | { | Tenor | |
| Malatestino, the one-eyed | } | { | Tenor | |
| Ostasio, son of Guido Minore da Polenta | Baritone | |||
| Ser Toldo Berardengo, a notary | Tenor | |||
| A Jester | Bass | |||
| A Bowman | Tenor | |||
| Tower Warden | Baritone | |||
| Francesca, daughter of Guido and sister of Ostasio | Soprano | |||
| Samaritana, sister of Francesca and Ostasio | Soprano | |||
| Biancofiore | } | women of Francesca | { | Soprano |
| Garsenda | } | { | Soprano | |
| Altichiara | } | { | Mezzo-Soprano | |
| Donella | Mezzo-Soprano | |||
| Smaradi, a slave | Contralto | |||
Bowmen, archers, and musicians.
Time—Thirteenth century.
Place—First act, Ravenna, then Rimini.
A PRETENTIOUS but not wholly successful score based upon a somewhat diffuse drama—such is the net impression made by Zandonai's opera "Francesca da Rimini." The story of Francesca and Paolo is one of the world's immortal tales of passion, and an opera set to it should be inspired beyond almost any other. But as W.J. Henderson wrote in the New York Sun the day after the production of Zandonai's work in New York, "In all human probability the full measure of 'love insatiable' was never taken in music but once, and we cannot expect a second 'Tristan und Isolde' so soon."
Act I. The scene is a court in the house of the Polentani, in Ravenna, adjacent to a garden, whose bright colours are seen through a pierced marble screen. A colloquy between Francesca's brother Ostasio and the notary Ser Toldo Berardengo informs us that for reasons of state, Francesca is to be married to that one of the three sons of Malatesta da Verrucchio, who although named Giovanni, is known as Gianciotto, the Lamester, because of his deformity and ugliness. As Francesca surely would refuse to marry Gianciotto, a plot has been formed by which she is introduced to his handsome younger brother Paolo, with whom, under the impression that he is her destined bridegroom, she falls deeply in love at first sight, a passion that is fully reciprocated by him, although they have only beheld each other, and not yet exchanged a word.
Such is the procedure of the first act. When Francesca and Paolo behold each other through the marble screen, which divides the court from the garden, in which Paolo stands amid brightly coloured flowers, the orchestra intones a phrase which may properly be called the love motif.
[[Listen]]
The act is largely lyric in its musical effect. Much charm is given to it by the quartette of women who attend upon Francesca. Almost at the outset the composer creates what might be called the necessary love mood, by a playful scene between Francesca's women and a strolling jester, who chants for them the story of "Tristan und Isolde." The setting of the scene is most picturesque. In fact everything in this act tends to create "atmosphere," and were the rest of the opera as successful, it would be one of the finest works of its kind to have come out of modern Italy.