Opera Explained | Turandot by Puccini (Audio)

"An introduction to....Puccini - Madama Butterfly" written by Thomson Smillie, narrated by David Timson.

Puccini’s swansong has a claim to being the last great popular opera. Its melodies have enchanted audiences since its posthumous premiere in 1926, two years after Puccini’s death. It involves a chilling story of love and cruelty, an intriguing cast of characters against the exotic backdrop of Imperial China, magnificent choruses and ensembles, and dazzling orchestration in an exotic score that comprises a string of remarkable arias – among which the great tenor aria ‘Nessun dorma’ is the jewel. It is more than Puccini’s last opera: it is the last word, in every sense, on Italian opera.

The popularity of Puccini’s final great opera should not blind us to its strong musical and dramatic qualities. In addition to being arguably the last great popular opera – in effect the swansong of an entire art form: that of Italian grand opera as popular entertainment – it is also a finely crafted work by the last great master. Puccini had an unerring instinct for what would stir audiences and in this final work combined a good story with a rich cast of personalities in an exotic setting, clothing the whole work in music at once beautifully melodic and particularly complex.

The title character is of course a woman – nearly all Puccini’s operas are named after their female leads, such was the importance and adoration he attached to women – and in Turandot he created one of the great enigmatic figures of opera. Much of the fascination of Turandot derives from the fact that Puccini died in 1924, leaving the work unfinished. A contemporaneous composer, Alfano, was given the awesome task of completing the opera from Puccini’s sketches, and while the ending has its detractors no one doubts its theatrical power. The finished work was posthumously produced in 1926.

Turandot is a very proper finale to Puccini’s career, combining and distilling all that was great in his art and some that was not. He conceived one after another great tune, built massively effective ensembles − huge crowd scenes of real majesty – and orchestrated the work with a dazzling orientalism which employed the full symphonic resources plus an astonishing battery of exotic percussion. From its savage opening – orchestral stabs of pain offsetting the glorious outpourings of the chorus − through to the final majestic choral setting of ‘the big tune’, Turandot is an opera that serves as a worthy close to a great career and maybe to opera as an art form of the people.

Tracklist:
1. Introducing Turandot
2. Opera in the 1800s
3. Puccini’s background
4. Puccini’s tenor arias
5. Background and plot
6. The opening: Peking
7. Enter Liù, Timur, Calaf and the executioners
8. Attempts to dissuade Calaf
9. Act II, Scene 1: Ping, Pang and Pong
10. Into the Riddle Scene (Act II, Scene 2)
11. Turandot
12. The three riddles
13. Turandot and Calaf: Act II Finale
14. Act III, Scene 1: Calaf
15. The death of Liù
16. Calaf ’s defrosting of the Ice Princess

Performers:
Princess Turandot - Giovanna Casolla, soprano
Unknown Prince (Calaf), son of Timur - Lando Bartolini, tenor
Liù, a young slave girl - Masako Deguci, soprano
The Emperor Altoum - Francisco Heredia, tenor
Timur, dispossessed foreign king - Felipe Bou, bass
Ping, grand chancellor - Armando Ariostini, baritone
Pang, grand provisioner - Javier Más, tenor
Pong, grand cook - Vicenç Esteve, tenor
Mandarin - José A. García-Quijada, baritone
Prince of Persia - Gorka Gerrikabeitia, tenor

Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra
Choral Society of Bilbao
Children’s Chorus: Escolanía Santa Maria de la Victoria
Conductor: Alexander Rahbari