{"id":10828,"date":"2016-01-18T20:59:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T19:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=10828"},"modified":"2016-01-18T20:59:38","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T19:59:38","slug":"the-song-of-francesca-da-rimini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/the-song-of-francesca-da-rimini\/","title":{"rendered":"The Song of Francesca da Rimini"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Thursday I went to the theatre with my friend Annalisa to hear a recital in which the actress Pamela Villoresi, accompanied by a pianist and a soprano, read some of Dante\u2019s work. The recital was based on the theme of Francesca da Rimini, the unfortunate heroine of the Fifth Canto of l’Inferno<\/strong>. In this Canto, Dante enters the second circle of the Inferno, where he finds the souls of those who committed crimes of lust, amongst whom are Paolo and Francesca. Of course, all of this would make far more sense to you if you’d grown up, as is normal here in Italy, with the works of Dante Alighieri. So allow me to give you a brief introduction to the main protagonists.<\/p>\n

Francesca da Rimini<\/strong>, the daughter of Guido da Polenta<\/strong>, Lord of Ravenna (in the region of Emilia Romagna)<\/em>, was forced by her father to marry Gianciotto<\/strong>, son of Malatesta<\/strong>, Lord of Rimini, a man of extraordinary courage, but physically deformed. Gianciotto’s brother Paolo<\/strong>, on the other hand, was very good looking and soon he and Francesca fell in love with each other whilst reading together the story of Guinevere and her lover Lancelot of the Knights of the Round Table. Caught in flagrante adulterio<\/strong> (having adulterous relations), Paolo and Francesca were both killed by the enraged Gianciotto.<\/p>\n

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Francesca and Paolo by Gustave Dor\u00e9<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Having only heard these works of Dante either read out loud at school, where even the most beautiful poems are transformed into silly children\u2019s rhymes, or performed by famous orators in the traditional over dramatised stentorious voice, I must admit that I was initially quite taken aback by Pamela Villoresi’s fresh approach to Dante. She didn\u2019t just read, but brought the characters to life with her voice, giving each of them an individuality that I’d never before heard: Minos, who judged the sinners’ souls and sent them to their appropriate punishment, spoke with a growling serpentine voice, Dante spoke eloquently with a strong Florentine accent, and Francesca, our young heroine, expressed herself in a timid, childish voice with an unmistakable Romagnolo<\/strong> (from the region of Emilia Romagna) <\/em>accent.<\/p>\n

Pamela Villoresi\u2019s recital was interspersed with arias by various composers such as Verdi, Donizetti, and Zandonai, who all wrote pieces inspired by Dante\u2019s poetry. Amongst these compositions was a little gem, an arietta composed by Gioacchino Rossini in 1848 entitled \u201cIl Canto di Francesca da Rimini\u201d<\/strong>, a rarely performed piece taken from lines 127-138 of the Fifth Canto of the Inferno.<\/p>\n

Click on the video below to listen to a version sung by the Italian mezzo-soprano Anna Bonitatibus.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n