The Met Live in HD's FANCESCA DA RIMINI Screens at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater Today

Composing in the early 1900's, Riccardo Zandonai was thought to be the logical heir to Puccini. Brilliant and musically gifted, he was so popular for a time that he was considered to complete Puccini's unfinished Turandot.

History hasn't been so kind, although one great masterwork survives. Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini returns to the Metropolitan Opera this season after an absence of 25 years, and will be broadcast live at Town Hall Theater on Saturday, March 16.

Soprano sensation Eva-Maria Westbrock and tenor Marcello Giordani play the doomed lovers in a ravishingly grand production.

Francesca da Rimini was a contemporary of Dante in the late 13th century. She was forced into a political marriage with a brutal, much older man, and in the process fell madly in love with her brother-in-law. When the husband finds them in the midst of passion, he murders them both.
Francesca da Rimini will be broadcast live at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater today, March 16, at 12 noon. Tickets are $24/$10 students and may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, 382-9222, at the THT box Office (Mon-Sat, Noon-5 pm), or at the door.

Pictured: The Metropolitan Opera production of Francesca da Rimini will be broadcast live in HD at Middlebury's Town Hall Theater, Saturday, March 16 at 12 noon.