Sergei Rachmaninoff

Monna Vanna

Monna Vanna () is an unfinished opera by Sergei Rachmaninoff after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck. Rachmaninoff had completed Act I in short vocal score, with piano accompaniment, and then he went to

Synopsis#

:Time: 15th-century :Place: Pisa, Italy, during an armed conflict with the city under siege. Act I is divided into three scenes. Guido, the military commander in Pisa, learns from his father that the enemy will cease conflict if Monna Vanna, wife of Guido, goes to the enemy’s camp, but dressed only in a mantle. Monna Vanna agrees to this demand.

Recordings#

Chandos CHAN 8987 (1991): Sherrill Milnes (Guido), Seth McCoy (Marco), Blythe Walker (Monna Vanna), Nickolas Karousatos (Torello), Jon Thorsteinsson (Borso); Icelandic Opera Chorus; Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Igor Buketoff, conductor and arranger (sung in English)
Ondine ODE12492: Moscow Conservatory Opera Soloists: Evgeniya Dushina, Vladimir Avtomonov, Dmitry Ivanchey, Edward Arutyunyan, Mikhail Golovushkin Moscow Conservatory Students Choir, Moscow Conservatory Students Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor, piano; orchestrated by Gennadi Belov. June 2014 (sung in Russian).

Composer: Sergei Rachmaninoff