Turandot in Torino – Find the Diva

OK, so imagine you're a diva who can actually sing the role of Turandot. And you get hired for a production. And and the director says, "You'll never be on stage alone. You will be surrounded by the female chorus, and they will all be dressed exactly like you and move exactly like you. And they all be will  lip-synching your part with you. [Ed.: and some will over-act*.]  And, you will lip-synch all the choral parts with them. So most of the audience won't even be able to tell you're the actual diva."

Where's Waldo Turandot?

"Hmmmm," you think in your diva brain, "I am not that egotistical, I can handle that."

And then the director says, "Oh by the way, the opera ends when Liu dies—there's no big final happy ending duet. In fact, you die when Liu dies, and that's it." If you're still on board, then you are an exceptional diva!

So, they ended the performance where Puccini stopped writing, much as Arturo Toscanini did at its premiere almost 100 years ago. Toscanini stopped there because he wasn't pleased with either of Alfano's endings. And although the opera's also been completed by Luciano Berio (!!!), that ending didn't appeal to this director and maestro either. So they decided to follow Toscanini's lead. This shifts the focus away from Turandot's (less than convincing anyway) transformation from ice princess to love diva. And that's where Liu comes back in. She is in love with Calaf simply because he was nice to her. Not because she's bloodthirsty, vengeful, and unavailable. Calaf always seems more interested in "conquering" Turandot than actually loving her (or being in love with her). If he wanted love, Liu is right there for him. He's kind of a Pinkerton to me. But I digress.

Gratuitous Friday, Part 2 – Richard Croft as Tito

Richard Croft, singing god; one tenor for whom Tito holds no terrors. 

Sadly, this is audio only. But what audio!!

Gratuitous Friday* – Dorothea, Vesselina, and Luca, (and Mozart)

I just found a Luca Pisaroni fanpage on Facebook; joining the group made me look back at my Luca posts. Due to the ephemeral nature of YouTube and the fact that Dropbox abolished the Public folder, I am missing a lot of music from my old blog posts**. I am not sure I even posted this one before, but it’s worth a replay either way. 

This is that slightly kinky "I'm going to smell your hair and there's nothing you can do about it"** version of Publio. (And, of course, the amazing vocal and dramatic talents of DR and VK!)

Happy Weekend!

*It’s Friday somewhere!

**I'd love to go back and replace all the missing files, but my energy's probably better spent finding new stuff. 

***This is a paraphrase of the observation made by opera blogger, Earworm. I cannot find the particular post where she said this (it may have been in a comments section of my blog), but here is the link to her blog.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Greetings! I realize I've been absent from the bologosphere a lot lately. But I’m still watching and listening and thinking about opera. I’m just not writing about it so much lately. I have thoughts about Norma and the Exterminating Angel from the Met; Calixto Bieto’s Tosca; Il trittico from the Bavarian Opera; that crazy Carmen from Aix last summer; the new Bergman-based opera written for Anne Sofie von Otter; and odd, vague tweets from opera singers. 

And I will get back to writing about these things...soon!  Meanwhile, here are some of my past Christmastide posts.

Tito @ Glyndebourne – Watch it Now!

If you have any interest at all in Mozart, La Clemenza di Tito, Claus Guth, Glyndebourne, staged opera, sung opera, Richard Croft, Alice Coote, mezzo-sopranos in general, or just about anything to do with music, singing, and opera, stop what you're doing and go to the Telegraph’s website (or Glyndebourne.com) and see this opera. 

You have less than five days now.  According to fellow blogger, dehggial (who has an awesome review of the production) there is a planned DVD release, but: (1) nothing is life is 100% certain; and (2) see it now anyway—you can always buy the DVD later (I know I will). The new Salzburg Tito has its merits; and it will be online at Medici for a while. We can talk more about both of them later. Go watch/listen the Glyndebourne performance now!