We’re happy to be back at the Los Angeles Opera for this week’s Sunday Opera (10/6 3:00 p.m.) and their production Puccini’s “Turandot.” Although a problematic opera, it has still been popular since its premier in 1926, two years after Puccini’s death.
Angela Meade is the troubled princess Turandot, who is fixated on the trials of her ancestor from a thousand years before, requires any suitor to answer three riddles correctly or be beheaded. After seeing her just once, deposed prince Calaf (Russell Thomas) becomes obsessed with Turandot and decides to test his fate.
With him are his blind father, Timur (Morris Robinson) and the palace servant Liu (Guanqun Yu) who is taking care of Timur; both try to dissuade Calaf from what they feel is certain death, but for some reason, he has fallen in love with the princess after only a short glimpse. Also trying to dissuade him are three court officials, Ping, Pang, and Pong (Ryan Wolfe, Terrence Chin-Loy, and Julius Ahn), who also offer ironic commentary on the proceedings.
Calaf solves all three riddles, and Turandot is incensed and refuses to yield to Calaf who then gives her the chance to find out his name. If she does, he will submit to be beheaded like the twelve princes before him.
The problem for many is in the last act where Liu is tortured to reveal Calaf’s name, but all she says is that his name is Love before she kills herself. Even with this, Calaf and Turandot are not moved, and it isn’t until Calaf kisses Turandot that she melts into his arms and suddenly loves him. The blind Timur is left to wander alone, and Calaf doesn’t seem to care.
Although unfinished at the time of his death, some believe that Puccini simply abandoned the project when he realized he couldn’t make the relationship between Calaf and Turandot come to a logical conclusion or make the two of them even remotely likeable. Theirs seems to be a relationship based on Calaf’s lust for Turandot, and her loathing for him simply would not be changed after one kiss.
The cast also includes Alan Wilson as a Mandarin and Ashley Faatoalia as Emperor Altoum. James Conlon conducts the LA Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
We’ll continue with more of Puccini’s music after the opera, and we’ll begin with another opera: the comic one-act finale of “Il Trittico,” “Gianni Schicchi.” We’re turning to a German language production headed by the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the title role. Schicchi is a trickster who seems to be helping the Donati family but is really helping himself and his daughter who wants to marry the man of her dreams. Even if you don’t know the opera, you’re sure to know one of the arias, “O mio babbino caro” which has been used to sell everything from cars to jewelry on TV.
We’ll close our time together with Puccini’s Messa di Gloria in a performance featuring tenor Antolello Palombi and baritone Gunner Lundberg who are joined by the Hungarian Radio Chorus and the Hungarian Opera Orchestra conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi.
