United Kingdom Puccini, Turandot: Soloists, Royal Opera Refrain and Orchestra of the Royal Opera Home / Rafael Payare (conductor). Broadcast dwell (directed by Bridget Caldwell) from the Royal Opera Home, Covent Backyard, to Cineworld Basildon, Essex, 1.4.2025. (JPr)
In reviewing this broadcast I’ll start by recounting (as soon as once more) my historic connection to Puccini’s opera as I knew Dame Eva Turner, one of many first Turandots (or Turandohs as she at all times pronounced it), in addition to, Dame Gwyneth Jones; and infrequently they talked concerning the calls for of this fiendishly troublesome function. Dame Eva was on the premiere of the opera in 1926 and first sang the function just a few months later: while Dame Gwyneth sang Turandot within the Los Angeles premiere of Andrei Serban’s manufacturing on the 1984 Olympics Arts Competition that commissioned it.
Jack Furness has as soon as once more revived Serban’s Tai chi-inspired manufacturing in its designs by Sally Jacobs and with Kate Flatt’s choreography. Once I noticed Turandot throughout its opening month at Covent Backyard (September 1984) it was its 137th time on the Royal Opera Home, and now it has reached 299 because of umpteen subsequent revivals within the intervening 4 many years (and it’ll return once more subsequent season with Anna Netrebko as one of many Turandots)! This well-known staging which has toured the world happened when each the unique manufacturing group and their replacements have been fired with the fee ending up with Jacobs, Flatt and Serban who’re believed to have had solely six weeks to get it to the stage. Apparently, we owe the prominence of all of the dancers (and actors) to the dearth of time for staging the large refrain and that additionally resulted in Jacobs having them sing from tiered, drum-shaped balconies. This additionally helps create one thing of a soundbox which throws the voices out into the auditorium.
A lot of the mise en scène is extra acquainted now than in 1984 from numerous scenes of Chinese language New 12 months celebrations, journey documentaries and flicks originating in China. Familiarity can breed contempt, and although its alternative had been anticipated by now, Serban’s Turandot is again once more refurbished – or so it appeared to me. Maybe, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t repair it’, particularly with an opera as problematical as Turandot. Serban strives for some authenticity with its Chinese language masks, costumes, pageantry, ceremonial dance and bloodthirsty savagery. The lengthy pink ribbons firstly, the one, two-tiered set for the brown robed refrain, and the dramatic masks of Turandot’s beheaded suitors with stylised silken blood, all look as vibrant because it should have executed throughout these first 1984 performances.
Other than some processions, some ceremonial dancing and the excessive jinks of the three ministers, Ping, Pang and Pong, little or no truly occurs. The main characters, Calaf, Turandot, Liù and Timur, simply stroll on, round one another, or off, as acceptable. They at all times appear relatively one-dimensional and maybe this was a part of the issue Puccini had in ending Turandot. Not even Plácido Domingo or Gwyneth Jones made something of them in Los Angeles in July 1984, I perceive; nor did Ernesto Veronelli and the late Ghena Dimitrova who I noticed at Covent Backyard a few months later.
An 1802 play by Friedrich Schiller a couple of chilly princess Turandot is believed to have impressed Puccini’s opera significantly as a result of she was very totally different to his different principal feminine characters who have been typically doomed to endure and generally die for love. The composer was significantly taken by ‘The Unknown Prince’ Calaf’s ‘journey’ and the way he ends the opera. As well as, he needed from Adami and Simoni, his librettists, all kinds of characters: Ping, Pang and Pong present some gentle comedian, albeit closely ironic, reduction and the doomed slave woman Liù (who will not be within the unique Carlo Gozzi supply materials) was created to counterbalance the princess’s character. Lastly, there are attainable autobiographical components: is Calaf Puccini himself, is Turandot his spouse Elvira and is Liù the tragic Doria Manfredi of the notorious scandal?
The writing and composition of Turandot proved troublesome and took virtually 5 years. The orchestration was almost full and solely the ultimate duet after Liù’s loss of life was lacking on Puccini’s early loss of life in 1924. Puccini’s music for Turandot is in lots of respects his most superior and most trendy in model. He sought out actual Chinese language music to mimic and his two sources for this have been a music field owned by a pal, and Chinese language Music, a booklet by J.A. van Aalst, revealed in Shanghai in 1884: Puccini incorporates a number of conventional Chinese language melodies in Turandot.
It is likely one of the most advanced and unique scores of the 20 th century. Each element was illuminated by Rafael Payare’s exuberant conducting which completely blended brash dissonances with textural energy and thrilling climaxes, but in addition allowed for some very refined, virtually chamber-like orchestral moments while you suppose you’re listening to stuff you missed earlier than. Payare actually introduced into sharp focus the place Puccini’s invention ‘died’ and Alfano – with enter from Arturo Toscanini – took over to finish the dramatically implausible concluding pages. From the pathos of the funeral for Liù – after her sacrifice for her beloved Calaf – it’s downhill all the way in which to the incandescence of the love-triumphant refrain (‘O sole! Vita! Eternità’) on the very finish. For his or her concluding duet Puccini wrote on the sketches ‘Poi Tristano’ (‘Then, Tristan’) and Alfano/Toscanini depart us with solely hints at what may need been had the composer lived to complete his opera. The Royal Opera Home Orchestra sounded – via cinema loudspeakers – because it they have been at their highest for Payare; and the considerably enlarged Royal Opera Refrain have been their common reliable selves and sang out with power and energy. Along with the orchestra this offered a wealthy dramatic background for the soloists.
Most individuals regard Calaf as one thing of an ‘impassive bastard’ as a result of he’s prepared to let Liù die in order that he can proceed to climb the social ladder. As such SeokJong Baek considerably subdued, unshowy efficiency befitted this notion, and it was a shock when Baek smiled for the one and solely time when embracing Turandot throughout the opera’s last pages. Baek’s voice will not be particularly Italianate however is stable all through its vary and the highpoint of his efficiency was an assuredly ardent, ‘Nessun dorma’, even when he held on to his climactic excessive B so lengthy that Payare had already moved the music on – to keep away from interruptive applause – earlier than he had completed.
Up-and-coming British soprano Gemma Summerfield sang Liù early (she is within the second forged) changing the indisposed Anna Princeva. She is clearly a soprano to look out for; Summerfield sang radiantly after a barely unsure begin and a contact of metal urged she is perhaps a Turandot of the longer term herself. ‘Signore, ascolta’ and ‘Tu che di gel sei cinto’ drew the viewers (within the theatre and on the cinema) into her character’s plight and Summerfield sang with nice feeling. Jette Parker Younger Artist Ossian Huskinson impressed as an authoritative Mandarin. Adam Palka was Timur, sadly, I’ve nothing good to say about his singing and hope it was simply an off evening, while Hansung Yoo (Ping), Aled Corridor (Pang) and Michael Gibson (Pong) have been a hyperactive, regularly acrobatic, well-sung trio. Paul Hopwood – described in his personal bio as ‘most likely one of many busier singers of whom you might have by no means heard’ – was a suitably venerable-sounding Emperor.
Lastly, Turandot herself. Sondra Radvanovsky appeared – to me at the very least – to solely undergo the motions (gestures?) of Serban’s unique concept for the character as a result of she had her personal ideas about her. We heard in an interval movie how for Radvanovsky Turandot is the alternative of an ‘ice princess’: ‘She needs to be beloved, and I believe it’s all proper there within the music … once I come again to this opera I at all times have some questions. The place’s her mom? … we see her dad, however we by no means hear point out of her mom.’ Radvanovsky puzzled whether or not she suffered the identical destiny as her ancestor Lo-u-Ling who was brutally killed by a international prince (we hear this in ‘O questa reggia’), ‘I’m wondering if that was handed down from era to era, subsequently she didn’t know some other manner besides to be this chilly “ice princess” that they name her, however I believe after so a few years of that you simply see this lady who all she actually needs is to be beloved.’
That – and at odds with Serban – is how Radvanovsky portrayed Turandot, continually reaching out the try to contact Calaf, and as they lastly touched palms throughout their last duet it created fairly a frisson earlier than ultimately they kissed. This was completely totally different to when the late Franco Bonisolli leapt upon Gwyneth Jones’s Turandot on the similar level on this manufacturing in 1988, apparently to her nice shock! Radvanovsky’s loud voice was hotter and fewer usually laser-like; a mature dramatic soprano sound that was completely suited to her idea of a more-human Turandot. Musically correct (as you come to count on from Radvanovsky) and each nuance of her phrases mattered, and because of this all Turandot’s pronouncements have been suitably imperious.
Jim Pritchard
Creatives:
Director – Andrei Șerban
Revival director – Jack Furness
Designer – Sally Jacobs
Lighting designer – F. Mitchell Dana
Choreographer – Kate Flatt
Choreologist – Tatiana Novaes Coelho
Refrain director – William Spaulding
Solid:
Princess Turandot – Sondra Radvanovsky
Calaf – SeokJong Baek
Liù – Gemma Summerfield
Timur – Adam Palka
Ping – Hansung Yoo
Pang – Aled Corridor
Pong – Michael Gibson
Emperor Altoum – Paul Hopwood
Mandarin – Ossian Huskinson
Soprano Solos – Marianne Cotterill, Tamsin Coombs
