We’re back at Covent Garden for this week’s Sunday Opera (8/24 3:00 p.m.) and the Royal Opera House production of Puccini’s “Turandot” featuring Sondra Raadvanovsky in the titular role and Seokjong Baek as Calaf.
Since the opera is very much a part of the standard opera repertoire, the story is well-known. It centers around the rather high-strung princess of the title who believes an ancestor from a thousand years past, Lo-u-Ling, who was raped and murdered by an invading prince, lives in her, and it is her duty to avenge her murder. As the opera opens, the thirteenth prince fails to answer Turandot’s three riddles and meets his death. Calaf, a deposed prince, sees Turandot and immediately falls in love with her. He then strikes the ceremonial gong three times to announce his desire to attempt to win Turandot.
This was the last work Puccini began, and he didn’t finish it. Some believe that he lost interest in it because he realized that the characters were ultimately unlikeable. He did, however, leave musical sketches regarding his thoughts on the ending, and several have been written over the years. Whatever the reason, Puccini’s contribution to the opera stops about halfway through the third act.
The case also includes Adam Palka as Timur, Calaf’s father and deposed king of Tartary. He is blind and is guided by the only servant to remain with him, Liu sung here by Gemma Summerfield, who is loyal because Calaf once smiled at her. The three court officials who act as a sort of Greek chorus, Ping, Pang, and Pong, are sung by Hansung Yoo, Aled Hall, and Michael Gibson. Rafael Payare conducts the Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra.
Pursuant to absolutely nothing, although I could say it’s another story about a man’s all encompassing love for a woman that eclipses everything else – I could say that, we’ll be following the opera with a ballet version of Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” which was written for the Northern Ballet by Claude-Michel Schonberg who penned the familiar musicals “Miss Saigon” and “Les Miserables.”
The story follows the doomed love of Heathcliff and Kathy and follows the popular film starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier more closely than the novel and is quite enjoyable. It’s performed here by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Pryce-Jones.
