Germany Puccini, Turandot: Soloists, Staatsopern Chor Berlin (refrain grasp: Martin Wright), Staatskapelle Berlin / Zubin Mehta (conductor). Filmed (directed by Tiziano Mancini) on 18.6.2022 at Staatsoper Unter den Linden however accessible till 13.1.2023 on ARTE Concert. (JPr)
Production –
Director and Set design – Philipp Stölzl
Assistant director – Philipp M. Krenn
Costumes – Ursula Kudrna
Lighting – Philipp Stölzl and Irene Selka
Choreography – Christopher Tölle
Dramaturgy – Jana Beckmann
Cast:
Turandot – Elena Pankratova
Altoum – Siegfried Jerusalem
Timur – René Pape
Calaf – Yusif Eyvazov
Liù – Aida Garifullina
Ping – Gyula Orendt
Pang – Andrés Moreno García
Pong – Siyabonga Maqungo
Mandarin – David Oštrek
Puccini was interested in Carlo Gozzi’s 1762 play as a result of an unique setting had already proved a hit for him with Madama Butterfly (evaluate click on right here) and the plot was much less life like than a few of his others. He was fascinated by Turandot, an icily merciless princess, who may be very completely different to his different principal feminine characters most of whom had been candy and obedient creations doomed to endure and generally die for love. The composer was notably taken by ‘The Unknown Prince’ Calaf’s ‘journey’ and the way he ends the opera. In addition, he demanded from his librettists, Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, all kinds of characters: Ping, Pang and Pong present a sure comedian – albeit closely ironic – aid and the doomed slave lady Liù (not within the authentic Gozzi story) is there to counterbalance the princess’s character. Finally there are the doable autobiographical components: is Calaf an image of Puccini himself, is Turandot his spouse Elvira and is Liù, the tragic Doria Manfredi of the notorious scandal?
Turandot proved troublesome and after 5 years the orchestration was nearly full with solely the ultimate duet (after Liù’s demise and the scene by which Turandot is reworked by Calaf’s kiss right into a warm-hearted human being able to love) lacking early in 1924. Early in November that 12 months Puccini went to Brussels to be handled for a throat tumour and died later that month following an unsuccessful operation. So, Turandot shares its destiny with plenty of different twentieth-century operas – equivalent to Busoni’s Doktor Faust, Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron and Alban Berg’s Lulu – all left unfinished when their composers died.
Puccini’s music for Turandot is in lots of respects his most superior and most trendy in type. Of course, Turandot is the product of early-twentieth century Orientalism – the fascination of the West with the ‘exotic’ cultures of the East – and with a purpose to create a extra ‘realistic’ Chinese ambiance, Puccini learn many books on the tradition and ceremonies of China. He additionally sought out actual Chinese music to mimic. Puccini solely used folks songs for the music of Ping, Pang, and Pong and so theirs is the one mild music in all the opera while total he used at the very least eight genuine Chinese tunes. The pentatonic scale – the size you get while you play simply the black keys on the piano – creates an ‘eastern’ sound and ‘oriental’ sounding harmonies are produced by juxtaposing main and minor collectively. There are a whole lot of percussion results, and the composer commissioned a set of 13 gongs particularly for his new opera.
Obviously, the Orientalism and feminine humiliation – amongst different points in Turandot – has more and more created issues for these staging it and whether or not Stölzl meets these head-on or simply ignores them I’m not certain. We hear from the three minsters how ‘Turandot does not exist!’ and that will clarify the large string puppet model of Turandot which dominates the stage to the exclusion of a lot else. The refrain are confined to the fringes of the stage and are in greyish – barely militaristic – boiler fits and have slick black hair and are reasonably like caricatures. Overseeing the surging crowd firstly are guards in shiny crimson with batons who deal with them brutally. (As I write this there’s this headline in a British newspaper ‘Why China’s demented zero-Covid obsession is now not about well being, it’s about energy and mass surveillance’, and this offers you slightly thought what Stölzl reveals on the Berlin stage.) Calaf, Timur and Liù are in white with, for me, a touch of the Terracotta warriors about their costumes; Ping, Pang, Pong are additionally in white with crimson bowler hats and look as if they’ve stepped out of a Chinese staging of Waiting for Godot; and at last, Emperor Altoum can also be in navy uniform and is saluted because the supreme chief. The lighting is generally gloomy although there are some intriguing color and summary patterns from Stölzl and Irene Selka for the Act II scene because the ministers mirror on their lot in life atop a pile of skulls.
The puppet Turandot dominates the primary act although her doll like face is just not revealed for some whereas. First, we see its huge skirt carry and with numerous smoke, the executioner is there sharpening his knife. Stölzl doesn’t shrink back from the brutality of Turandot’s regime and the therapy and demise of the Prince of Persia – who’s thrown about on some stairs earlier than having their throat torn out – is sort of graphic. Later the useless suitors who’ve failed Turandot’s riddles cross the stage like zombies. Calaf appears extra keen on fantasy reasonably than actuality and proclaims ‘I want victory! I want love!’ which will get him a slap from Liù. An enormous bulb comes down which Calaf rises within the air to ‘strike’ and it lights up as he will get entangled with the puppet.
In the second act, there’s the robotic motion of the gang acquainted from mass celebrations in numerous dictatorships. The emperor rises up from the puppet’s skirt which opens and divulges its framework and gold lining because the ‘real’ Turandot seems in her personal voluminous robe. A big golden disc is proven in the back of the stage as Calaf confronts Turandot. The princess takes off her wig and the puppet – which has gained some legs – loses its personal hair as doves and a coronary heart are proven in its chest earlier than the face drops to disclose a cranium. Calaf is just not keen on something apart from the chimera.
In the ultimate act, the puppet is not more than the highest half of a skeleton with six legs and the large bulb is again. Anyone caught sleeping is violently dispatched and thrown down right into a cistern (initially the rostrum for the puppet). It is from right here that Turandot will stand up on the high of the steps. Ping, Pang, Pong with their pliers, hooks and a knife to torture Liù verify how they’re much extra Turandot’s enforcers than they’re often portrayed as. Liù stabs herself and the individuals recognise her sacrifice and she or he is carried off. The puppet has misplaced its cranium whereas Calaf continues to handle the doll’s face from the sooner acts. Calaf refers to Turandot because the ‘Princess of death!’ and – presumably acknowledging all of the harmless lives she has extinguished – the ministers hand her some poison which she drinks. Calaf and Turandot lastly embrace and kiss as she dies with the bulb flickering on and off.
Just what Stölzl needs us to remove from this I’m not certain however there are actually plenty of intriguing tableaux. Undoubtedly it was – total – an excellent success musically (at the very least as heard via my loudspeakers). A significant and dramatic refrain is crucial to Turandot and the Staatsopern Chor Berlin had been dedicated to their half in Stölzl’s Konzept and mightily spectacular. After his current travails it was good to see Zubin Mehta trying so comparatively nicely and he brilliantly crafted the thrilling interpretation of Puccini’s vibrant rating splendidly performed by the Staatskapelle Berlin.
There had been excellent vignettes from Gyula Orendt, Andrés Moreno García and Siyabonga Maqungo as Ping, Pang and Pong. David Oštrek was a stentorian Mandarin. Siegfried Jerusalem did little for his legacy by his look right here – now in his 80s – as Altoum and sounding frailer than his character ought to. Also not at his greatest was René Pape’s gravelly Timur and his prolonged profession is perhaps catching up with him (more often than not he appeared to neglect he was alleged to be blind). Made to face out from the gang was Aida Garifullina’s Liù and anyone trying much less like a slave can’t be imagined. Her Liù was uncommonly robust; ‘Signore, ascolta’ and ‘Tu che di gel sei cinto’ had been movingly acted and sung with nice feeling to attract the viewers into her character’s plight.
Yusif Eyvazov gave a comparatively subdued, unshowy efficiency, whereas convincingly revealing himself as one thing of a deluded, impassive ‘bastard’, keen to let Liù die in order that he can obtain his aim of conquering Turandot. Eyvazov’s sturdy tenor voice has a baritonal center and completely safe high and the spotlight of his singing was an assuredly ardent – if extra reflective than some – ‘Nessun dorma’.
Elena Pankratova was a stately Turandot, however she introduced throughout her character’s cruelty, petulance, concern and, simply presumably, burgeoning humanity when she knew she was dying, very nicely certainly. The factor that mattered most was her singing and her vibrant, steely voice was musically correct and wobble-free. Every nuance of her phrases mattered and all her pronouncements – ‘In questa reggia’ included – had been supplied with imperious impact.
Jim Pritchard