Livermore’s new Turandot is in an opium haze at Milan’s La Scala as Netrebko and Eyvazov are victorious – Seen and Heard Worldwide

Italy Puccini, Turandot: Soloists, Refrain and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan / Michele Gamba (conductor). Broadcast dwell (directed by Anna Gettel) from La Scala, Milan, 4.7.2024. (JPr)

Giacomo Puccini died, solely 65, in November 1924 and in April 1926 Turandot – which was left unfinished on his dying – premiered at Milan’s La Scala. Quick-forward 98 years and the composer’s untimely dying was commemorated by Davide Livermore’s new manufacturing of Turandot at that exact same opera home.

One factor to say about this new Turandot is that it’s by no means static or – with respect – barely boring within the method of Robert Wilson’s manufacturing in Paris (evaluation right here). Wilson had a stork flying on the level it’s talked about singing in Act I and Livermore now reveals us three introduced on the stage. Though Livermore’s mise-en-scène seems totally totally different after all, I imagine it has been strongly iNFLuenced by the look of Andrei Serban’s Covent Backyard Turandot (evaluation right here) now forty years outdated and on account of be revived once more there subsequent season.

For me an opium haze – proper from the start – hangs heavy over all that we see. Because the Mandarin sings there’s a wafting determine which we’ll perceive is Princess Lo-u-Ling on the prime of a central staircase. We study her in Turandot’s ‘In questa reggia’; she was raped and murdered by a overseas prince, and this has made the princess herself reject all males providing marriage and she’s going to solely undergo the somebody who solves her three riddles. Considerably Turandot sings of Lo-u-Ling dwelling in her, and certainly she – within the type of that spectral determine – shadows Turandot all through singing silently alongside together with her till she appears to be exorcised close to the top. Sometimes – just like the stork – issues are literal on the stage comparable to when Liù sings her third act ‘Tu che di gel sei cinta’ concerning the icy princess and it snows.

When there’s any point out of executions or blood D-Wok’s video reveals it dripping down on the again and the stage is bathed in pink. Additionally, the leitmotif of this Turandot an enormous – usually rotating – moon on the centre of the stage which might flip right into a ‘blood’ one. In any other case, it will likely be clear with the executioner (Pu-Tin-Pao) – now a feminine dancer – fluttering inside it, or there seems to be flowers or white veils inside the ‘moon’, or is that extra opium smoke? One other determine who will get extra stage time is the Prince of Persia who’s abused and stripped bare by the folks of outdated Peking. (Apparently in accordance with Livermore, the Prince of Persia is the ‘proud voice’ of Calaf’s ego.)

The three-dimensional set (with a lodge and the neon signal ‘Amour’ at one facet), along with the pictures usually proven on the again, take us to Peking within the second half of the 20 th century I think. And when Turandot is sung about she seems to inhabit a cherry blossom crammed realm which comes down from the flies.

The minsters Ping, Pang and Pong initially seem dressed as Calaf and every has a masks of his face and are most likely simply in his head at this level, however they’re actual sufficient when within the opium den/brothel on the opening of Act II which incorporates some Tai Chi and ends with a conga line. Turandot’s entourage in pastel kimonos (a type of costume which truly originated in China) stand up from beneath the stage while the 2 princesses (Turandot and Lo-u-Ling) come down from above. Turandot is costumed as if Anna Netrebko was due at a Milan Trend Week Gala after the efficiency. That includes on the finish of this act is a life-sized Perspex pupPet horse – simply as in Struggle Horse – that we first noticed in Act I and can reappear on the conclusion of the opera. What this represents – as for a lot of Livermore’s phantasmagorical imagery – should stay unexplained on this primary viewing.

Because the third act begins towards a starscape, I think it’s the secret police and their heavies who’re terrorising the folks of Peking as they attempting to find the overseas prince’s identify (the one riddle he has set Turandot after answering her three). Ultimately Liù the slave-girl accompanying Calaf’s blind father, Timur, having revealed the identify they’re after as ‘l’amour’ (‘love’) she sacrifices herself by operating into Calaf’s sword. An anguished Timur calls out for her spirit to revenge her dying and vows to observe her into ‘the evening which is aware of no daybreak’.

On the 1926 premiere Toscanini stopped conducting after Liù’s dying turning to the viewers saying, ‘Right here the opera ends, as a result of the Maestro died’. Certainly, that was the gist of the phrases beneath the portrait of Puccini projected on the ‘moon’ earlier than there was a minute’s silence with the solid lined up on the entrance of the stage holding, like the complete viewers, small LED tealights. This was fairly affecting truly! The opera then rushed by way of the ‘conventional’ Siegfried-esque completion by Franco Alfano (as ‘edited’ by Toscanini) when Calaf’s ardour overcomes Turandot’s protestations and because the folks sing in reward of the 2 lovers (‘O sole! Vita! Eternità!’) all of it ends with a cherry blossom tree within the globe and a bathe of pink confetti.

It was a nice solid: Adriano Gramigni was a resonant Mandarin; Rosa Feola was a passionate and deeply touching Liù and sang an exquisitely formed ‘Signore ascolta’; Vitalij Kowaljow was grave and sonorous as a scenery-chewing Timur; singing the three ministers, Sung-Hwan Damien Park, Chuan Wang and Jinxu Xiahou, introduced extra persona to Ping, Pang and Pong than typically with see; and veteran tenor Raúl Giménez, in his singing and performing, portrayed a much less enfeebled Emperor Altoum than we’re used to.

Undoubtedly Anna Netrebko’s Turandot – grounded in some darkish chest notes – took a couple of minutes to heat up throughout ‘In questa reggia’ which was not helped by having to barter some perilously stairs. However, Netrebko was mighty spectacular by way of to the top of the opera; requisitely steely, sturdy and safe all through her vary, she was not afraid to respect the music and emphasise the heat and great thing about her sound in some extra nuanced passages. Equally greater than a can belto singer – although some reviewers would have you ever imagine in any other case – Yusif Eyvasov is presumably nearly as good a Calaf as you’ll be able to hear right this moment. He isn’t the best actor however sings strongly with burnished, ringing tone and, once more, a sure refinement the place the composer calls for its. His singer-friendly conductor, Michele Gamba, nonetheless, did indulge him with a long-held – Bonisolli-like and crowd-pleasing – ultimate ‘Vin-CEEEEEE-rò! Though Netrebko and Eyvasov at the moment are separated in life they nonetheless seem to have nice chemistry onstage.

Heard by way of loudspeakers the opposite vocal stars of this efficiency had been the refrain who had been additionally given some advanced motion over three acts as they had been hardly ever nonetheless. The orchestra responded nicely to their conductor and sounded on prime kind: Gamba revealed all the colors of Puccini’s most unique rating with out the account each going past a stable and never notably insightful one.

Jim Pritchard

Featured Picture: Calaf (Yusif Eyvazov), Lo-u-Ling, and Turandot (Anna Netrebko) © Teatro alla Scala / Brescia e Amisano

Manufacturing:
Staging – Davide Livermore
Units – Eleonora Peronetti, Paolo Gep Cucco, Davide Livermore
Costumes – Mariana Fracasso
Lights – Antonio Castro
Video – D-Wok
Refrain grasp – Alberto Malazzi

Solid:
Princess Turandot – Anna Netrebko
The Emperor Altoum – Raúl Giménez
Timur – Vitalij Kowaljow
The Unknown Prince (Calaf) – Yusif Eyvazov
Liù – Rosa Feola
Ping – Sung-Hwan Damien Park
Pang  – Chuan Wang
Pong  – Jinxu Xiahou
A Mandarin – Adriano Gramigni
Handmaid I – Silvia Spruzzola
Handmaid II – Vittoria Vimercati
The Prince of Persia – Haiyang Guo