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If you have dismissed this opera as overstuffed kitsch in the past, you might want to take a look at this production. It could well change your mind.

The use in the score of ancient musical instruments is what differentiates this work: pifferi, a lute, a “viola pomposa” give this work a distinctive flavour.

Mounted as part of Theater Erfurt's Romeo and Juliet, Zandonai's 1922 opera, in its first German production since 1942, offered a distinctive retelling of the tragedy of the 'star-cross'd lovers', both as a composition and in staging.

Christof Loy ist an der Deutschen Oper Berlin mit der selten gespielten Oper Francesca da Rimini von Riccardo Zandonai ein echter Opernthriller gelungen.