Opera
Christopher Cook admires a production that balances horror with pity
Nina Stemme stars in this brilliant production of Puccini’s Turandot
PUCCINI
Turandot
Nina Stemme, Maria Agresta, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Angelo Veccia, Roberto Covatta, Blagoj Nacoski, Carlo Bosi; Coro di Voci Bianche dell’accademia Teatro alla Scala; Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala/riccardo Chailly; dir. Nikolaus Lehnhoff (Milan, 2015)
Decca 074 3937 136 mins
There are many more riddles in Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s production of Puccini’s final opera than are asked of Calaf. But it is a measure of Lehnhoff’s authority that you never question his choices – the blood red geometrical set, studded with coat pegs it seems, the people of Peking in uniform black and wearing half masks and then in brilliant red, and Ping, Pang and Pong refugees from some extravagant commedia dell’arte troupe. We are no doubt that we are watching a fable, but it’s a horror story too with death at every turn. And crucially for Lehnhoff and his designers, Raimund Bauer and Andrea Schmidt-futterer, it’s also a drama in which Calaf, Liù and Timur, all so different from the inhabitants of Peking, return humanity to this imperial city in the grip of a bloodlust. Love really does triumph at La Scala.
In part it’s because Riccardo Chailly digs deep into Puccini’s score, matching the angled chords and jagged rhythms of the first act with the lyricism that the composer reserves, say, for Liù’s first aria.
And the La Scala orchestra plays as if their life depended on it. It helps that Chailly chooses Luciano Berio’s striking end to the opera, which keeps faith with the musical sketches that remained after Puccini’s death while taking this uncompleted last work on into another edgy late-romantic world, with shifting tonalities that hint at late Strauss.
Nina Stemme is in the great tradition of Birgit Nilsson’s Turandot, though there is a touching uncertainty around her Princess too, a sense that she is as much a victim of the rape of her ancestor as everyone else. Aleksandrs Antonenko is a brawny Calaf who lacks Stemme’s ability to characterise a role. But Maria Agresta’s Liù is one of the most appealing on record. The very stones of Peking would weep to hear her second aria, ‘Tu che di gel sei cinta’.
BELLINI
Adelson e Salvini
Simone Alberghini, Daniela Barcellona, Enea Scala, Maurizio Muraro, Rodion Pogossov, David Soar, Kathryn Rudge; Opera Rara Chorus; BBC Symphony Orchestra/daniele Rustioni
Opera Rara ORC56 152:89 mins (2 discs)
Where would we be without Opera Rara? Here is another forgotten opera brilliantly performed, and accompanied by a 140-page book(let), full of handy information and the full text in Italian and facing-page English. Bellini’s first opera is not a great work, but I felt last year when it was done at the Barbican with these same forces that it is far better than even an ardent Bellinian could hope, given that it was a student work, hugely indebted to Rossini and raided by the composer for individual numbers to be included in his later operas; and it was rapturously received – on these CDS you can hear why, though they were recorded in a studio.
The young conductor Daniele Rustioni conducts Adelson as if it were a masterpiece, and the forces at his disposal respond appropriately. Bellini’s orchestration isn’t the first thing one thinks of, but there are striking touches, all of which get due attention here. And the cast in this bewildering action, which defies summary or understanding, sound just as committed as their director, the major role of Nelly (some of the others are Salvini, Lord Adelson, Colonel Strudey, Bonifacio and Fanny) being taken by Daniela Barcellona, who disposes of her dizzying music with staggering panache. The dialogue is spoken, and my one complaint is that it is breathed into the microphones so close-up that there is no sense of characters communicating with one another. Michael Tanner
HANDEL
Catone
Sonia Prina, Riccardo Novaro, Roberta Invernizzi, Kristina Hammarström, Lucia Cirillo; Auser Musici/carlo Ipata
Glossa GCD 923511 124:75 mins (2 discs)
‘I am just come from a long, dull, and consequently tiresome opera
Berio’s striking end to the opera keeps faith with Puccini’s sketches