Turandot in New York
Glitz and Superb Singing in Met’s Turandot
TURANDOT by Giacomo Puccini. Librettists: Giuseppe Adami & Renato Simoni. World premiere: Teatro alla Scala, Milan, April 1926. Met and U.S. premiere: November 16, 1926.
Turandot – what great razzle-dazzle it is!
Premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1987, Franco Zeffirelli’s lavish, epically Maximalist production of Puccini’s Turandot has been shown nearly 225 times. It eventually started looking a bit dusty but was refurbished a few years ago and has been restored to its glitzy splendor. The dazzling white-and-gold of the Riddle scene still elicits wild applause, and if the dozen maidens in white twirling white parasols have been eliminated; they were always unnecessary among the other 200-or-so people on stage It already felt like a gorgeous railway station at rush hour. Audiences loved it from the start; some critics felt it was so much that the opera and its emotions got lost amidst the sparkle. And the truth is, Zeffirelli’s view avoids any psychological or emotional insight, relying on razzle-dazzle. But what great razzle-dazzle it is!
I love traditional productions as much as the next fellow, but I take Regie productions one at a time. Claus Guth’s Freudian look at Salome was the most potent and disturbing iteration of that opera I’ve ever seen, while the Met’s Carrie Cracknell-conceived Carmen is absolute junk – no Spanish flavor, and a second act that takes place in a moving railroad boxcar! If the audience is puzzled or disgusted, you’re doing something wrong. Worse, even, was Simon Stone’s Lucia di Lammermoor, now taking place in a run-down town in the American rust belt, peopled by drug addicts and cameramen filming the action. Wretched.
Anna Pirozzi’s tone is Italianate and most welcome
Back to Turandot: Several singers starred in the two big roles this season; I waited to hear Anna Pirozzi and Brian Jadge. Pirozzi was making her official debut, having sung one performance at the Met in 2019, when she filled in for Anna Netrebko in Macbeth.
She is a star in Europe and was splendid as Turandot here. The voice is grand and it gets bigger and better as it rises; her B flats, Bs and Cs are gigantic, pitch perfect and astounded with no strain whatsoever. The rest of the voice is handsome and capable of scaling back for some genuine dolce effects. She sings off the text and emphasizes the right words for comprehension. Unlike sopranos like Nilsson and Goerke, the tone is Italianate and most welcome. Brian Jadge, tall and handsome, offered a gorgeously sung Calaf, attempting (and failing) to make something deeper of this character, but pouring out radiant spinto tones up to and including a pair of fine high Cs. He and Pirozzi had little chemistry; the characters are cold and so were their interactions – only half-way their fault, but hearing such ideal vocalism in this opera is a real pleasure. The pitiable Liu was sung by a Met favorite, Angel Blue, in not-so-good voice. The soft B flats in both her first and third act arias were a mess; begun sweetly but breaking and becoming strident with an unwelcome rise in volume. She was otherwise lovely and properly brave and pathetic. Bass John Relyea sang a gorgeous Timur; for once we found his mournful aria over Liu’s dead body quite touching. Joo Won Kang, Tony Stevenson and Andrew Stenson were the cynical, nostalgic, mellifluous Ping, Pang and Pong. Carlo Bosi was more alive-sounding than most Emperors, and Ben Brady’s Mandarin made us sit up and listen.
Oksana Lyniv knew how to glean excitement from the score and the finales to each act were thrilling. But she had little sympathy, it seems, for shading or subtlety, and this might have added to the lack of chemistry between Prince and Princess. Lyniv rushed both of Liu’s arias and the moments in act two when Calaf was presented to the Emperor. The orchestra and Chorus were, as ever, magnificent. If excitement was what she was going for, she succeeded.
Robert Levine
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