The finale from Puccini's TURANDOT, from the Met's "Live in HD" series. Watch the entire performance on Met Opera on Demand: bit.ly/V6BD66 Production: Franco Zeffirelli Conductor: Andris Nelsons The Metropolitan Opera 2009-10 Season
Puccini was an artist whose work just kept getting better as he grew older. This is the most lavish production of his final masterpiece (sadly never finished) I have ever seen thanks to Franco Zeffirelli's inspired design and direction.
Absolutely agree, I often wonder what else he might have done if he had lived longer, I never view Turandot without goose bumps. Ravishing in every way.
Decades ago, we saw 'Turandot' at the Met. There was such a soulless soprano that we left. She had skill - no doubt. I'm old - never did that before or since. And, yes, the sets were splendid. Am curious if that's ever happened to anyone else. Fwiw, I love opera as much as anything - and that means even 5-hr German ones.
Sadly, funding for opera houses and the arts in general has been on a steady decline. Very difficult to make lavish productions every time with such limited budgets.
I've heard it said that the Met is the only opera company whose sets get applause. I, for one, and delighted for it. A lot of brilliant talent, management, and sheer production skill are behind the scenery.
@@scottgelband2253 The scenery is part of the whole production. Music, singing, sets, scenery, costumes . Who wants to sit there and just listen to the music and singing and look at an empty stage. You may want to, I don’t . If all you want is the music and the singing, it’s called a concert.
This is probably the best video of the finale. Enhanced by silent presence of Maria Guleghina - by this point in the long opera, most sopranos playing the Princess look like they're in pain, but she has this beatific smile and the expression of love appropriate to the story.
Bernard Sussman ha...you know there is no real ending for this opera by Puccini. Why do you presume your thought about the ending is 'appropriate to the story'?
Lavish production, excellent camerawork, and an ending to an opera that Puccini tried with great difficulty to complete over a number of years but simply could not bring himself to do so. The ending was a metaphor for his desire to overcome a tragedy in his personal life with a resolution that could never be fulfilled, and so the happy ending he envisioned for Turandot could never ring true to his artistic self if he completed it. He was that great an artist, as he left us his own heartbreak in the music.
Gorgeous. And a much better ending than either Turandot or Calaf deserve. They're vile characters. Must be why Puccini made the music more beautiful than ever.
are you all insane? this must be the best opera production in history! the only bad thing about it that I can say is that it is so good that these modern singers are TOO LITTLE for it, it makes them seem ever more meriocre than they reall are!
The greatest Turandot was a tiny woman called Eva Turner, who my great grandparents saw, and apparently talked about for years after because she drowned out the orchestra and chorus. When she made recordings in the 1920s and 30s she had to stand behind the orchestra so the orchestra could be heard on the record. It's size of voice that matters.
I don't see a problem with this production. Broadway never crossed my mind. I don't see why genres can't match either. For that matter I see nothing wrong with Broadway productions. I wish people in the music world would be more open-minded, then it wouldn't have the snobby reputation it has.
I like Alfano's original ending better, about 1 minute longer, with extra brass and more high B-flats, B's and C's for the soprano and tenor ringing out in octaves. It's MAGNIFICENT.
unclealand Absolutely true! His cowardice and her malice take life of a dependent girl (I don’t like the word slave) Liu. Typical of how common people bear collateral damage in the power struggles of the wealthy and influential powerful people.
@@shreyaschawathey3820 they are two beings separate from the rest of humanity, a warrior prince and the daughter of heaven. Though it's not spelled out, it is Liu's death that is the catalyst that brings them to the point where he is willing to die should Turandot wish it, and she gives up the victory he gives her. They become human because of Liu.
Seemed alright to me. I'm in the "new audience" as people call it and I found it pretty enticing. Of course I know it's incredibly historically inaccurate, but one has to acknowledge the ignorance of the time for it to make sense. It's a fairy tale more than anything to me. Perhaps that's what's making me miss whatever "hideous" things you're finding.
There is a certain type of opera "fan" who make themselves feel very intellectual by criticising perfectly good singers and productions. These people are stunningly similar to Dr Who fans in that they love to slate what they profess to love.
@mannail888 What's wrong with the production? Even though it's totally over-the-top at least it has a royal feel to it and immerses us in this realm, stereotypical as it may be.
It remains a little flawed that Turandot changed her heart after a (forced upon her, mind you) kiss from the prince. After all, her woman ancestor that she is reincarnated from was raped and killed by a man. The prince should have made something imensly unselfish abd humanitarian and in order to redeem that.I only hoped that Puccini would have found something like that if he lived longer.
It's hugely flawed, and there are variations that attempt to address it (eg by having him kiss her gently instead, and Turnadot explaining her change of emotion rather than having it come out of nowhere in the end). Personally I just find Calaf very unlikeable: Liu ends up getting tortured and dying partially due to his actions; Turnadot's subjects were threatened with a similar fate that he could have prevented by opting to give her up, but he chose not to; and his pursuit of Turnadot comes off like single-minded physical obsession rather than genuine love. The resolution just leaves me emotionally numb. I greatly enjoy the music in isolation, but the story is just unsatisfying.
I saw Turandot in Covent Garden two weeks ago. Marco Berti and Lise Lindstrom were far better than the stars here, but the set was not in the same league as this met production. The costumes were far less appealing and the ambition of the production paled compared to the Met production.
I think every opera production I've seen anywhere else pales in comparison to what the Met does. Many opera houses don't have the money or the massive stage that the Met does to put on these kinds of productions.
such kitsch. What did they call the Paris Opera in the 19th century? La grande boutique? Jewelpiece of a decadent art - at least while Meyerbeer and his ilk were ascendant.
It's still Kitsch. Can you imagine if we presented Shakespeare in the mid 19th century tradition? It would be unwatchable to the vast majority of audiences
@The99Gambo The 1988 version by the Met is just as awful as the new one. While it is true that Marton is even more hideous than that Swiss glacier, that espanol singer is totally at sea which leaves only the indomitable Mitchell to save the day which is not enough.
@The99Gambo It's not one bit sad at all because the singing of Calaf and Turandot are so dreadfully awful that you might not be able to recover from its all round atrocities perpetrated by this most rotten production.
It looks more like a Rodgers and Hamerstein musical than opera. Zeffirelli should remember that Broadway and Opera are two different art forms, each great in their own way when done properly but you cannot mix them. It doesn't work.
@@alvarodecampostabacaria4223 what's killing opera is pathetic attempts to make opera "relevant" by setting grand operas on sparse stages that look like overturned builders' skips, costumes that Primark would reject and intrusive acknowledgements of whatever the latest socio political zeitgeist is.
@Jaydoggy531 Royal feel, you must be kidding. More like hideous feel. Everything: the costumes, the sets, the proceedings of the actions, the gestures of the extras and the chorus and utimately the direction are so elephantine, so ponderous, so clumsy that any trace of liviness is sucked out.
