Metanoia – the word itself – means beyond thought; to broaden and change the way of seeing. ‘Metanoia’, which crosses both time and borders with the works of Giacomo Puccini, Arvo Pärt, Alexander Borodin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Ennio Morricone, is steeped in this concept: From Puccini, who only wrote one sacred work on account of the ‘Almighty God’ commanding him to write ‘only for the stage’, to Bach, who possessed an astonishing ability to make us experience transcendence using the simplest of elements, to Pärt, whose ten-year creative crisis birthed a new, highly original musical language. Together with her ensemble, K, the choir Sequenza 9.3, and violinist Manon Galy, Simone Menezes travels across Italy and invites us to experience the thought-transcending aspects of music, and to uncover the personal journeys of Metanoia of some of the greatest figures in music and art.

Set in the artistic but impoverished milieu of early 19th-century Paris, the tragic love of the poet Rodolfo and seamstress Mimì is one of the most affecting in all opera. La Bohème’s arias are also some of the most intensely passionate Puccini ever wrote, making it is one of the best-loved of all his works. In what Opera News called a ‘thorough rethinking and brilliant re-creation’ this exceptional Oslo production, strongly cast and conducted, and staged by internationally acclaimed director Stefan Herheim, explores the work as never before to create what The New York Times called an ‘ultimately haunting’ experience.

Review

The impressive cast includes Diego Torre as Rodolfo and the luscious-voiced Marita Sølberg, acting and singing beautifully as Mimi…This is a bold, innovative and thought-provoking production that challenges more conventional interpretations of Puccini’s best-loved opera.

--New Classics

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Giacomo Puccini.

Also available on Blu-ray

Giacomo Puccini’s three act opera Turandot is set in China and tells the story of Prince Calaf who falls in love with the Princess Turandot. To obtain permission to marry her, a suitor has to solve three riddles, but any wrong answer results in death. Rebeka Lokar is a “commanding Turandot” (Bachtrack) and Jorge de León as the Princess’ suitor a “true giant” (Corriere della Sera) with his perfect rendition of “Nessun dorma”. Grammy Award nominee Gianandrea Noseda impressively conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Regio “as modern as you have rarely experienced it. Chapeau!” (Operalounge) Stage director Stefano Poda dedicates himself to bring Puccini’s Ancient Chinese setting to life. To achieve an aesthetic and conceptual unity, his work also encompasses set and costume design as well as lighting and choreography. “Extraordinary Turandot” (La Repubblica), “unanimous applause at the end!” (La Stampa). “The icy Turandot inflames the Teatro Regio!” (Corriere della Sera)

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REVIEW:

Noseda will be missed at Turin, as this punchy and incisive performance reveals. Overall, speeds are brisk but there is plenty of atmospheric detail. Grimaldi’s Liù is really the true heroine here, given the production’s skewed emphasis. Still, it’s a pity that the Slovenian soprano Rebeka Lokar gets so little input into Turandot, as she attacks those murderous high notes in juicy and vibrant voice.

– Gramophone

Also available on Blu-ray

Andrei Serban’s spectacular and thrilling 1984 production of Puccini’s final and grandest opera has long been a classic at the Royal Opera House. First filmed for BBC TV in the 80s, this new recording – of its 15th revival – is in stunning HD and makes this famous production available for the first time on DVD and Bluray. The release will rightfully take its place alongside the outstanding Royal Opera Puccini DVDs of La bohème, Tosca (on EMI) and Il Trittico. American Lise Lindstrom is one of the very few contemporary Turandots who can genuinely sing this “killer” role, and is supported by a touching Liù from Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura and an unashamedly Italianite Calaf from Marco Berti. The young Hungarian conductor Henrik Nánási directs the large orchestra and all-important chorus. Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, September 2013.

Giacomo Puccini
TURANDOT

Turandot – Lise Lindstrom
Calaf – Marco Berti
Liu – Eri Nakamura
Ping – Dionysios Sourbis
Pong – Doug Jones
Pang – David Butt Philip
Altoum – Alasdair Elliott
Timur – Raymond Aceto

Royal Opera House Chorus
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Henrik Nánási, conductor

Andrei Serban, stage director

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, September 2013

Bonus:
- Turandot – an introduction
- Behind the Masks
- Cast gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Korean
Running time: 125 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

Also available on Blu-ray

With Rosario La Spina cast as Calaf, Susan Foster as the icy princess and Hyeseoung Kwon as the loyal slave girl Liù, the singing throughout is superlative. The choreography and direction of Graeme Murphy is visionary, add the set and costume designs of Kristian Fredrikson, and the lighting of John Drummond Montgomery and this production is glorious in its beauty.

Giacomo Puccini
TURANDOT

Turandot – Susan Foster
Calaf – Rosario La Spina
Liù – Hyeseoung Kwon
Timur – Jud Arthur
A Mandarin – Shane Lowrencev
Ping – Andrew Moran
Pong – David Corcoran
Pang – Graeme Macfarlane
Altoum – Benjamin Rasheed

Opera Australia Children’s Chorus
(chorus preparation: Anthony Hunt)
Opera Australia Chorus
(chorus master: Michael Black)
Orchestra Victoria
Andrea Licata, conductor

Graeme Murphy, stage director, choreographer
Kristian Fredrikson, set and costume designer
John Drummond Montgomery, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Arts Centre Melbourne, on 20 and 25 April 2012
Bonus:
- Cast gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Korean
Booklet notes: English, French, German
Running time: 124 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

Also available on Blu-ray

PUCCINI Turandot • Giuliano Carella, cond; Maria Guleghina ( Turandot ); Salvatore Licitra ( Calaf ); Tamar Iveri ( Liù ); Luiz-Ottavio Faria ( Timur ); Carlo Bosi ( Emperor ); Leonardo Lòpez Linares ( Ping ); Saverio Fiore ( Pang) ; Gianluca Bocchino ( Pong ); Arena di Verona O & Ch • BELAIR BAC 066 (DVD: 128:00); BAC 466 (Blu-ray: 128: 00) Live: Verona 2010

Turandot was Giacomo Puccini’s last opera and one he did not live to finish. He “laid down his pen,” as the expression goes, for the last time after he had finished the music for the death of Liù and the solemn procession during her ritual removal from the stage. Unfortunately for the composer who eventually finished the work, Franco Alfano, Puccini left more than the unfinished manuscript; he left an untenable dramatic situation as well. With the death of Liù there remains a clueless tenor who has apparently been fatuously pursuing the wrong girl all along, and a cruel, unlikeable dramatic soprano, Turandot. These two are finally to come together as a couple and the audience must feel that a celebratory resolution of the opera’s emotional impetus is occurring with this union. Sorry, it just doesn’t happen. Alfano wrote approximately 14 more minutes of pretty good music, certainly nothing that would embarrass Puccini, much of it based on the older composer’s extensive notes, but he could not dispel the anticlimactic pall of this final bit. One or two other composers have rewritten the completion in the decades since, but have fared no better, I’m not at all sure Puccini could have saved the bacon either had he lived longer. So we are left with a congenitally weak conclusion for the opera, but it is a work that contains much superior material elsewhere as well. The aria “Nessun dorma” alone is a small Puccini miracle and rivals or surpasses anything else he wrote for the tenor voice.

This production from the Arena di Verona is a quite traditional one and uses the standard Alfano ending. As I have said in previous reviews, this particular outdoor venue demands spectacular sets and special effects to make up for the less than ideal acoustics and the distance from audience to stage. It gets plenty of glitz and glitter here with a new celebratory production from that master showman, the Cecil B. DeMille of his day, Franco Zeffirelli. The Arena, Turandot, and Zeffirelli are a near-perfect match, and the Italian stage director vindicates the confidence shown in him with this splendid new production. The new sets are ornate, sumptuously colorful, detailed, and properly large. The production employs a large chorus and many extras, all meticulously dressed, to attend and pay homage at Turandot’s father’s impressive Imperial Palace. We get many close-ups, and the crowd in general is doing more natural things than in some other Zeffirelli efforts. I must admit to a guilty secret: I am a closet Zeffirelli fan. His work is always a visual feast even when it may be drawing attention away from the drama and the singing. I’ll take my chances.

This production was to prove somewhat of a swan song for tenor Salvatore Licitra, at least on video. Licitra was to die almost exactly a year later in a motor scooter accident in Sicily, apparently brought on by a cerebral hemorrhage. It is an unfortunate loss to the artistic community when any artist dies prematurely, but particularly so in the already thin ranks of premier operatic tenors. Licitra sings quite well here as Calaf; he even encores “Nessun dorma,” once a big no-no in Italian opera houses. In my estimation Licitra is the pick of the cast, but fails to bring the last ounce of thrilling vocalism that would rank him alongside a Corelli or a Pavarotti in the role. Dramatic soprano Maria Guleghina has begun competing with herself in recordings of Turandot, much like Eva Marton did back in the ’80s and ’90 s (and stage designer/director Zeffirelli is doing as well). This is Guleghina’s third video performance in the role, and there are quite a few audio recordings of her Turandot as well. Here she is in quite good voice and sings cleanly, if a little passionlessly. Her big voice at times has a steely edge, much like Birgit Nilsson in the role, but then much of Turandot’s music is not meant to charm. The Liù of Tamar Iveri is a bit more problematic. She has a heavy vibrato that distracts from the vocal line, and her tone turns edgy when she pushes in her top range. Beginning back with Anna Moffo and even earlier, the singing of Liù has been of a generally high standard in the recorded history of the opera, so to come up a bit short here is unexpected. Luiz-Ottavio Faria as Timur sings solidly, as do the Ping, Pang, and Pong, especially the baritone Ping of Leonardo Lòpez Linares, who acquits himself with distinction. The sound on video from the Arena orchestra is really much better than it has any right to be, as I have noted before. And the chorus sounds very good as well, thanks to the miracles of modern sound reproduction. Thomas Edison would be amazed.

There has been a plethora of videos of Turandot (though not so many as for some other Puccini operas), but not one has really separated itself from the pack as a clear first choice. The Levine set with Eva Marton and Plácido Domingo has been highly praised over the years and also features a Zeffirelli production, but suffers from 25-year-old video and audio technology. The Gergiev set on TDK offers the novelty of the Luciano Berio ending in place of the Alfano, but the cast is quite pedestrian. An earlier set from the Arena features Ghena Dimitrova and Nicola Martinucci. This one is better, in fact as good a choice as any, and has quite the best cast of singers of the three Guleghina sets.

The booklet contains a synopsis in Italian, English, German, and French. Audio formats are PCM stereo and Dolby 5.1 surround. Subtitles are in all major European languages, no Korean, but Japanese. There are no extras with the opera but it is available in both DVD and Blu-Ray formats. I would recommend the latter if you have the equipment; this production is a visual tour de force and the high-resolution picture is like watching it in a theater. Recommended.

FANFARE: Bill White

Filmed in HD at a live 2012 performance in the Teatro Carlo Felice, one of the best known and the last of Puccini's operas "Turandot" is directed and filmed by Giuliano Montaldo in a cast led by Daniela Dess� in the titular role and Mario Malagnini as the Calaf. Based on a 12th century Persian tale, the story of Turandot has long entranced audiences worldwide with it's lyrical pageantry and pentatonic laden score containing an astonishing amount of now beloved arias such as "Nessun Dorma" and "In Questa Reggia". With the Franco Alfano score to the final act and with the Orchestra and Choir of the Teatro Carlo Felice conducted by Donato Renzetti, this production features the acclaimed stage design of Giuliano Montaldo's. With generous subtitle availability in Italian, English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Korean.

Also available on Blu-ray

Performed on the Bregenz Festival's vast lakeside stage, this production of Turandot is captivating and spectacular. Giacomo Puccini's final opera is set in China and is an interesting love story that is sure to enrapture audiences. Puccini died before he completed the opera left instructions that Riccardo Zandonai should finish the work but Franco Alfano was the one to complete the third act. Paolo Carignani conducts the Wiener Symphoniker with the staging done by Marco Arturo Marelli. Leading the cast are Mlada Khudoley, Riccardo Massi, Guanqun Yu, and Michael Ryssov.

Giacomo Puccini
TURANDOT

Turandot - Mlada Khudoley
Altoum - Manuel von Senden
Timur - Michail Ryssov
Calaf - Riccardo Massi
Liù - Guanqun Yu
Ping - Andrè Schuen
Pang - Taylan Reinhard
Pong - Cosmin Ifrim
Un mandarino - Yasushi Hirano

Prague Philharmonic Chorus
(chorus master: Lukáš Vasilek)
Bregenz Festival Chorus
(chorus master: Benjamin Lack)
Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Paolo Carignani, conductor

Marco Arturo Marelli, stage director and set designer
Constance Hoffman, costume designer
Davy Cunningham, lighting designer

Recorded live at the Bregenz Festival, July 2015

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 125 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

PUCCINI OLIVERO; LABO; GOBB TOSCA

Giacomo Puccini
TOSCA

Floria Tosca – Daniela Dessi
Mario Cavaradossi – Fabio Armiliato
Baron Scarpia – Ruggero Raimondi
Cesare Angelotti – Marco Spotti
Sacristan – Miguel Sola
Spoletta – Emilio Sanchez
Sciarrone – Josep Miquel Ribot
Gaoler – Francisco Santiago
Shepherd – Eliana Bayon

Madrid Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
(chorus master: Martin Merry)
Maurizio Benini, conductor

Nuria Espert, stage director
Ezio Frigerio, set designer
Franca Squarciapino, costume designer
Vinicio Cheli, lighting designer

Recorded live from the Teatro Real de Madrid, 19 and 22 January 2004

Bonus:
- Interviews with Daniela Dessi, Fabio Armiliato, Ruggero Raimondi and Maurizio Benini
- Nuria Espert in conversation with Teatro Real’s Artistic Director, Emilio Sagi
- Cast gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish
Running time: 194 mins
No. of DVDs: 2

Famous for her Wagner recordings as Tosca, Regine Crespin is featured on this historical recording. This recording was taken on May 18, 1961 at the Covent Garden London. Along with the Wagner diva, the Orchestra and Chorus of the Royal Opera House performs here, conducted by Edward Downes.

PUCCINI: Messa di Gloria / Preludio Sinfonico

In 1996, Vox released a 4-CD set that included this, the original La Scala fiasco version of Madama Butterfly, as well as Puccini's revisions for Brescia and Paris. It was a fascinating release and fans of the opera immediately realized what had been wrong with the first version: The first act contained far too much "local color" in the form of music for Butterfly's relatives (there's even a drinking song for her uncle Yakuside), and the 90-minute last act, in addition to simply being too long in general, dragged out the overnight vigil, too abruptly went into Butterfly's lullaby to her child, and wasted an extra couple of minutes between Butterfly's final lines and her suicide--what on earth could she be doing? Puccini later trimmed away a great deal of fat, altered many, many notes and tonalities (it's a delight, actually, to note the differences), added Pinkerton's rueful "Addio fiorito asil" as well as Butterfly's heartbreaking recognition of Kate Pinkerton, and much more. (The ultimate "Ah! Morte!" at the close of her pathetic second-act narrative to Sharpless was an afterthought as well; originally her vision of returning to life as a geisha ends softly and less desperately.)

This is a very well sung performance. Bulgarian soprano Svetlana Katchour is a big lyric (going on spinto) with an attractive sound, her pitch is dead-center, the voice is well and evenly produced, and when her Italian isn't garbled, it's not bad. Her Butterfly is severely undercharacterized, however: she seems a bit shy in Act 1 and pretty unhappy in Act 2, but she never truly moves us as the greatest Butterflys (such as Dal Monte, Scotto, or Callas) do. Pity--the voice is marvelous. Tenor Bruce Rankin, having to make Pinkerton nothing but a cad (without his final, sympathetic aria), does so very well. His also is a lyric voice, but the sound is appealing, the technique in place, and a lively mind is clearly behind his interpretation. It will be nice to hear more of him.


Fredrika Brillemburg's Suzuki is right there with Butterfly, sympathetically and with nice tone in the Flower Duet. Baritone Heikki Kilpeläinen sounds very young for Sharpless, but it's a quality voice. Gunter Neuhold takes six minutes less in the first and 10 minutes less in the second act than Charles Rosekrans on Vox, and the latter hardly lags. I must admit that even though things occasionally do seem rushed on Naxos at 57 and 82 minutes respectively (per act), perhaps getting through them somewhat quickly is not such a bad idea. The Bremen Orchestra is very good, the chorus less so. Naxos' sound is excellent. The Vox performance featured an okay cast--no more. This new Naxos set is the one to own if you want the original, and fans of the opera (particularly at Naxos' price), will need this.
--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com