Austria Puccini, Turandot: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of Vienna State Opera / Marco Armiliato (conductor). Filmed on the Vienna State Opera (directed by Tiziano Mancini) on 16.12.2023 and presently obtainable on medici.television. (JPr)
When Claus Guth’s new Regietheater Turandot premiered at Vienna State Opera in December final yr I perceive it was nicely acquired by an viewers who was, again within the day, so very conservative. There was nothing Chinese language about all of it and turning every little thing right into a psychodrama focussing – in Freud’s Vienna – on a younger lady’s irrational worry of intimacy and intercourse, might keep away from cultural appropriation although it does diminish the opera’s epic grandeur. Basically, the ethical of Turandot is unaffected by all of the head-scratching Guth’s Konzept induces with real love profitable by way of ultimately thawing even the coldest, and most brutal, of hearts. That Turandot is a flesh-and-blood lady with human fears and needs and never an ice princess is nothing actually new. To be truthful when left alone at finish for an prolonged (extra of that later) love duet Guth’s staging labored greatest as Turandot melted (!) into Calaf’s arms.
Earlier than the opera correct begins there may be the ticking of a clock heard and the palms of the clock (ever current?) on the immediate field go fast-forward. What occurred from then on I can’t be sure however on the very finish of the opera, the palms which had stopped at 12 begin turning once more. We’re welcomed right into a uniform, considerably faceless, society inhabiting Etienne Pluss’s set – a white field – that fills the whole stage. Everyone seems to be in costume designer Ursula Kudrna’s lime inexperienced fits, have crimson hair, glasses and roses on their lapels. The refrain (virtually as in COVID-19 days) is marginalised, forming two rows on the very entrance of the stage in Act I and offstage in Act II aside from the youngsters’s refrain of mini-mes.
The refrain are sitting on storage containers (every probably containing the pinnacle of one in all Turandot’s previous suitors like others clearly do). Characters enter from under the stage with extra containers or enter by way of some metallic lockers. Whereas they will come on the stage, Calaf (carrying an odd-looking trendy go well with) has climbed into the white field however is now trapped and can’t get out. It’s a extremely bureaucratic society, heads should be measured, kinds crammed out and the sharpness of the executioner’s sword examined on a big pumpkin. On the again wall video of a giant ghostly picture of Turandot now and again haunts what we see, smearing blood when the blindfolded Prince of Persia is taken out to return as a headless corpse. Timur is historically blind with a employees, however an austerely dressed Liù has an entourage of 4 who’re costumed like her and kind a conga line as she enters to sing ‘Signore, ascolta!’. Collectively all of them try to entrap Calaf in a cat’s cradle of ribbons earlier than he breaks free and summons Turandot by slapping the massive doorways to the rear of the stage, no gong in fact!
Chief amongst these bureaucrats we noticed earlier are Ping, Pang and Pong who start the second act – in what could be a altering room – dreamily reminiscing and, for some purpose, eradicating their wigs and glasses and stripping all the way down to vests and trousers. After taking part in with the decapitated heads they introduced on in containers they exit by way of a locker and shortly we’re again within the massive box-like room, now a bed room past these first-act doorways. A cowering Turandot together with her lengthy white hair lies on a mattress in a satin negligee with 4 masked Barbie doll-like figures in pink on the finish of it. Additionally current is the hooded executioner Pu-Tin-Pao. Emperor Altoum enters carrying a pink regalia sash, is grey-haired, clearly ailing, and desires a strolling stick. From a chest below the mattress the relics of Turandot’s raped and murdered ancestor Lo-u-Ling – her limb bones – are displayed. Turandot is put right into a white bridal robe with feathered skirt earlier than revealing the primary of the three riddles she clearly believes will save her from the same destiny. Turandot’s world begins to show the other way up, starting together with her mattress, and as Calaf is triumphant she ends the act embraced by her Barbies.
The ultimate act takes place on two ranges: under Turandot is in an upright mattress having nightmares surrounded by the 4 pink doppelgängers wielding knives and above is the room from Act I with the lockers and stools overturned, lights torn down from the partitions, and folks wandering aimlessly about. Calaf is tempted by a Turandot lookalike, gold bars and a bemedalled determine earlier than under a bloodied and roughed-up Liù is dragged on. It’s Turandot herself who begins to additional torture Liù, wrapping her legs round her at one level earlier than retreating below the duvet of her mattress as Liù finds a knife to commit hara-kiri. After having rose petals scattered on her useless physique Liù is wrapped in a black shroud and dragged off.
A wall comes down isolating Turandot and Calaf on the entrance of the stage, they kiss earlier than she brandishes a knife threateningly and so they kiss once more. The wall lifts and the refrain are again sitting round on their containers. Turandot is put again in her marriage ceremony robe and each she and Calaf are given sashes and are sat far aside centre stage. On the very finish Turandot rebels and rejects the inflexible, formal society, removes her sash after which Calaf’s earlier than working out with him by way of a locker.
Puccini had struggled with Turandot for nearly 5 years and by early 1924 ultimately every little thing had been orchestrated up till Liù’s demise. The ultimate scene during which Calaf’s kiss transforms Turandot right into a warm-hearted, loving human being was left solely as sketches. Sadly, on November 29, 1924, the chain-smoking Puccini died in Brussels the day after a most cancers operation. Franco Alfano accomplished the opera from Puccini’s sketches, however this didn’t fulfill Arturo Toscanini who carried out the primary Turandots. Jonas Kaufmann recorded the whole Alfano completion in 2022 for Sir Antonio Pappano and Warner Classics and right here he was singing it in his function debut in Vienna. Have I heard it earlier than, I can’t be certain, but it surely made me lengthy for the truncated model we normally hear. The additional bars now remind me extra – maybe not surprisingly? – of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber than Puccini and are usually not applicable for the concluding Siegfried-like love duet I think Puccini envisaged.
Conductor Marco Armiliato can do little fallacious in Puccini and though he did stretch some tempos to indulge a number of of his singers it had all the required drama, sweep and fervour. And, as additionally to be the anticipated, the Vienna refrain and orchestra have been wonderful. Jonas Kaufmann sounded more energizing as Calaf in late 2023 than I had heard him of late. It goes with out saying that his tenor voice is baritonal however high notes have been stable’; ‘Nessun dorma’ was the showstopper it should be, and his appearing was assured. Asmik Grigorian – a soprano David Mellor in a really latest CD overview astonishingly claimed he had by no means heard of – was outstanding in her personal function debut as Turandot. At all times essentially the most compelling of actors, Grigorian’s Turandot was an actual lady and never some fantasy determine and her spectacular voice allowed her to sing the function – together with ‘In questa reggia’ – with unusual ease. Was it Guth who wished such an intense and forthright Liù with Kristina Mkhitaryan seemingly auditioning to sing Turandot sooner or later. Dan Paul Dumitrescu was a somewhat gruff Timur, Jörg Schneider gave Altoum some poignancy whereas Martin Hässler’s lyrically sung Ping stood out among the many trio of ministers.
Jim Pritchard
Creatives:
Stage director – Claus Guth
Set designer – Etienne Pluss
Costume designer – Ursula Kudrna
Lighting designer – Olaf Freese
Video designer- Roland Horvath (ROCAFILM)
Choreography – Sommer Ulrickson
Dramaturgy – Konrad Kuhn, Nikolaus Stenitzer
Refrain grasp – Thomas Lang
Solid:
Turandot – Asmik Grigorian
Altoum – Jörg Schneider
Timur – Dan Paul Dumitrescu
Calaf – Jonas Kaufmann
Liù – Kristina Mkhitaryan
A Mandarin – Attila Mokus
Ping – Martin Hässler
Pang – Norbert Ernst
Pong – Hiroshi Amako
First balcony girl – Antigoni Chalkia
Second balcony girl – Lucilla Graham
Voice of the Persian Prince – Jörg Schneider
Ballet – Europaballett St. Pölten
