Turandot

This Turandot, originally telecast on 23. Dec.1958, was made by RAI as a black & white TV-film. The music was recorded first, presumably in only a few takes (or even in one go? ). Afterwards the video was filmed with the singers lip-synching to their own recording. While this may not be ideal as the lip-sync is often noticeable it was usual at the time.

The video in 4:3 format is rather dark and grainy, better not viewed on a large screen, sound is mono but better than the video. Subtitles are available (English, German, French).

The version shown here is the usual one with Alfano's ending and with the usual cut of Del primo pianto. The latter serves to make Turandot's change of heart more understandable but Alfano wrote it in a low tessitura whereas the remainder of Turandot's role is extremely high that many sopranos had it cut.

The film's creative director, Mario Lanfranchi, incorporated elements of Japanese Kabuki, seen in the stylized poses and (hand) movements and in the mask like make up. This works perfectly for the well choreographed crowd scenes and also for solos or small ensembles, adding a dreamlike/ nightmarish quality to the cruel fairytale. In my eyes the lack of colour is a bonus as it makes for a more archaic look and emphasizes light and shadow -quite a bit of Turandot plays at night!

On to the singers:

The scenes of Ping, Pang and Pong can drag quite a bit in less than excellent versions, here they are first class, both vocally and scenically, they are a joy to watch and listen to (the House in Honan!).

The Timur of Plinio Clabassi is sung very well, up close the costume and make up cannot quite hide that he is much younger than his role.

Renata Matteoli portrays a wonderfully fragile slave girl Liú. She really looks the part and sings beautifully, apart from a few acuti with a hint of the acerbic- but not any worse than Scotto on the 1965 studio recording.

Lucille Udovich was an American soprano who made her career in Italy, chosen by Gigli to sing with him in concerts and having her stage debut in 1954 in Spontini's Agnese de Hohenstaufen. Sadly Udovich's career was curtailed by bad health.

Hers was a true spinto voice with cutting (some say strident though here I cannot hear it) high notes just as required for Turandot. Birgit Nilsson's may have been even more laser like but Udovich's voice has a warmth which makes her change from icy to loving in the 3rd act more plausible. She easily manages the fiendishly difficult high tessitura. Acting wise Turandots don't have much to do, hampered as they are by their heavy costume (manto stellato) and headdress and their nails! Udovich does it as well as any and her Principessa di gelo looks female enough to make Calaf's infatuation not ridiculous.

Puccini composed the part of Calaf with Giacomo Lauri Volpi's voice in mind. His heir (in LV's own words) Franco Corelli was the undisputed owner of the role after the war and hasn't been reached, much less surpassed, to this day. Il Principe ignoto (Calaf) is a role for a full spinto tenor who must have a high C. Anyone can sing Nessun dorma into a microphone but the whole role- without amplification- is quite a different proposition!

Apart from fulfilling all the vocal requirements like no other after him, Corelli famously also had the physique du role. The film makes the most of it, the camera closing in on his face and eyes in the pivotal scenes. The most pivotal of all comes in the 2nd act after the riddle scene: first the brilliant high C on Ti voglio ardente d'amor and then the ravishing mezza voce in Il mio nome non sai... There Turandot's ice gets the first cracks.

This film has Corelli in flexible, youthful voice and he displays not only powerful full throated singing but also subtlety, mezza voce and diminuendo aplenty. Apart from the film star looks there's much more than just a hint of Corelli's reportedly mesmerizing stage presence.

Conducted by Fernando Previtali, choir and orchestra of RAI give an authentic and italianate reading of Puccini's masterpiece.

The DVD by VAI comes with two extras from the Bell Telephone Hour (TV show) 1962: Corelli in E lucevan le stelle and Amaro sol per te (with Lisa della Casa), both from Tosca. Though in colour, the videos aren't in better quality than the Turandot film but they are to be treasured as rare video examples of Corelli in his prime.

For viewers tolerant of vintage recordings this is by far the best Turandot, a priceless document of the greatest Calaf since Lauri Volpi.

Turandot is an opera that has always been very special to me, since singing in the chorus in 2007 for it. It's not my favourite Puccini opera though, I have more a fondness for La Boheme and especially Tosca, but it has some great arias and the story and characters are certainly memorable. This, like the Marton/Domingo/Mitchell and Marton/Carreras/Ricciarelli performances, is an excellent Turandot, perhaps not the very best overall, but for those who love Franco Corelli, Puccini or the opera will love it I think.

If there is anything that could've been better, it was the videography. Some of it is very dark and part of Liu's aria Signor Ascolta is lost. However, it does have imperial-looking sets and the costumes have a oriental enough look to them. There are some interesting visual touches, especially the idea to have the Executioner completely hooded, which made him even more threatening, Corelli's eyes lit by light as he looks intently at Turandot and having the Emperor as a white silhouette.

The music is predictably phenomenal, and has a powerful orchestra and conductor to give it justice. The final duet is cut, such as with Turandot confessing that she loved Calaf from the first moment she set eyes on him, here it does sort of work but I find these lines in the opera give Turandot some humanity. This Turandot also has the most innovative-looking chorus I've seen for this opera, dancing exotically with the music with emphasis on orchestration and harmony.

Franco Corelli is just magnificent as Calaf. In fact I'd go as far to say he is my favourite Calaf of all time. Finally a Calaf, after many productions where it's Liu, that steals the show! He is on top form vocally, the singing is ringing and beautiful with Nessun Dorma thrillingly sung and much more than the tenor showcase that I hear today a lot, Non Piangere Liu tender and the whole enigma scene heroic and defiant. He acts wonderfully, never stolid but heroic and firm, and his tall and handsome looks help as well.

When it comes to the supporting cast they are generally good, Ping, Pong and Pang are very nasty and funny, managing to steal every scene they appear in(Ping especially has a very beautiful voice), and Plinio Clabassi is a noble and sympathetic Timur with a rich voice, and he is very moving after Liu's death in Act 3, phrasing his music with intelligence and sensitivity. Lucille Udovich is very good on the whole as Turandot, she is chilling during In Questa Reggia and during the Enigma scene, and sings powerfully during Act 2. Act 3 vocally wasn't as good, there is some harshness, but overall I very much liked her.

Renata Mattioli is a good if sometimes disappointing Liu. Signor Ascolta is very poignant I give you that and she looks the part of the innocent slave girl, but Liu's really heart-wrenching moments come in Act 3 and while the musicality was great and she is very affecting before she dies, some of her high notes in the passage where she says she'd rather be tortured rather than reveal Calaf's real name sound rather shrill for my liking. Overall, it is an excellent Turandot and worth seeing for Corelli alone. 9/10 Bethany Cox

It's an old medieval tale which was repeatedly dramatised in different forms and even refashioned by Friedrich von Schiller (1802), and even H. C. Andersen treated the subject in one of his best tales ("Reisekamaraten"). The plot is totally absurd. Turandot is a cruel all-powerful princess who beheads every suitor of hers who can't answer three tricky riddles, and many such have already been decapitated when Calaf enters the scene. He finds her abominable both as an example, princess and women, but the moment he sets eyes on her he falls hopelessly in love with her and risks his life by volunteering to answer the three absurd riddles. She is ice cold, cruel, inhuman and totally ruthless, so you must wonder how anyone could love such a creature - she is a monster. In Calaf's retinue there is a slave girl Liù who loves him sincerely, but she is only a slave girl, and he is a prince. The actual opera is about her. Turandot does not appear until half way through in the opera, and then she opens her mouth only to deliver a fearsome soliloquy of hatred and revenge, as she swears to kill all men who dare to approach her, as a revenge for the mistreatment of a female ancestor. Puccini died before having completed the opera, he reached as far as completing the Requiem for Liù, the rest of the opera (10 minutes) was completed by Alfano, a pupil of his, but all the magic of Puccini's music is lost from that bar. When Toscanini conducted the first performance at La Scala in Milan, he laid down his baton at that point and would not continue, stating "at this point the maestro died". The music of the first act is probably the finest music Puccini ever composed, and this performance renders it complete justice, the recording being surprisingly good for being just a TV-film. The opera is a director's ideal, as you can do so much with staging, the crowd playing an important part, the scary elements, the monstrous absurdity of the princess and above all the costumes, which this performance does with a vengeance. Franco Zeffirelli made an equally impressive screening of it shortly before his departure, but this is just as good, although much simpler and more primitive - television in the 50s was rather basic. Above all, the performance of Franco Corelli as Calaf is probably the best possible rendering of that character.