A House Divided

Riccardo Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini was intended to be the 2021 instalment in the Deutsche Oper’s ongoing reappraisal of neglected works from the early twentieth century, a highly rewarding series that has thus far featured rarities from Schreker, Zemlinsky and Langgaard, among others. Although the première performance took place as scheduled, lockdown restrictions meant that it was performed to an empty house (for the purposes of live-streaming), and would have to wait another two years for its first public performance. Between Christof Loy’s unsettling staging and a captivating performance of the title role from Sara Jakubiak, the evening provided an ideal introduction to a work of challenging intensity.

Francesca is not perhaps as much of an obscurity as some of the previous entries in the Deutsche Oper’s series. The opera, based…