BaL 7.07.12 - Puccini's Turandot

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

9.30am Building a Library: Roger Parker discusses his personal recommendation from recordings of Puccini's opera Turandot

Available Recordings:


Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Roberto Abbado
Orchestra and Chorus of RAI, Napoleone Annovazzi
Venice/Franco Capuana
Orchestra, Chorus & Corps de ballet of the Arena di Verona, Giuliano Carella (DVD/Blu Ray)
Orchestra and Chorus of the San Francisco Opera, Riccardo Chailly
The Australian Opera Chorus & State Orchestra of Victoria, Carlo Felice Cillario (DVD)
Coro e Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma, Alberto Erede
Naples, Oliviero de Fabritiis
Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor & Tölzer Knabenchor Wiener Philharmoniker, Valery Gergiev (conductor) (DVD)
Venice/Franco Capuana
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Torino della RAI, Franco Ghione
Rome Opera Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf
Vienna Philharmonic Ochestra, Herbert von Karajan
Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra, James Levine
Orchester Der Wiener Staatsoper, Chor Der Wiener Staatsoper & Wiener Sängerknaben, Lorin Maazel (conductor) (DVD)
Chor und Orchester des Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Zubin Mehta (DVD)
John Alldis Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta
Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Zubin Mehta (DVD)
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet, Andris Nelsons (DVD/Blu Ray)
Orcestra e Coro del Teatro Comunale dell´Opera di Genova, Daniel Oren
Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, New London Children's Choir, Philharmonia Orchestra, David Parry
Coro Del Teatro Dell'Opera Di Roma, Orchestra Del Teatro Dell'Opera Di Roma, Francesco, Molinari Pradelli
Chor und Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
RAI Orchestra, Fernando Previtali
Chorus and Orchestra of the Colon Theatre, Fernando Previtali
Orchestra e Coro di Milano della RAI, Fernando Previtali
Orchestra and Chorus of Radiotelevisione Italiana, Milan, Fernando Previtali (DVD)
Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra, Choral Society of Bilbao, Escolanía Santa Maria de la Victoria, Alexamder Rahbari
Chorus & Orchestra of the San Francicso Opera House, Donald Runnicles (DVD)
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Tullio Serafin
Christel Goltz, Teresa Stich-Randall & Hans Hopf, Georg Solti
Sinfonieorchester und Chor des Westdeutschen Rundfunks Köln, Sir Georg Solti
[BOrchestra and Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera, Leopold Stokowski



[And for those who really need to get a life :
Nessun Dorma x 24:- Artists include Barioni, Bergonzi, Bjoerling, Cecchele, Corelli, Cortis, Del Monaco, Filippeschi, Giacomini, Gigli, Granda, Kiepura, Labò, Lauri Volpi, Lazaro, Lindi, Martinelli, Merli, Pertile, Rosvaenge, Salvarezza, Thill, Valente, Ziliani]

[amateur51]

Great list again EA

Re Nessun dorma - you've missed out Richard Tauber (auf Deutsch which was a bit of a shock); and wasn't there talk of a Val Doonican unissued track?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Great list again EA

Many thanks. But it may yet be scrapped if it turns out that BaL is to be Elgar's Cello Concerto after all.

[Flosshilde]

Of course, the big question is which recording has which ending - Alfano 1 or 2, or Berrio & which ending will the reviewer dismiss at the start.

[BBMmk2]

One of my favourite Puccini operas. I kinow i have Domingo i one of them but there are two others, of which I cannot remember off hand!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have Pavarotti/Mehta and Domingo/Karajan. The former is a classic, but the Karajan is let down by some dire DGG recording and some quite messy ensemble from the world's greatest - very hard to believe.

[Black Swan]

I to have the Pavarotti/Mehta which I agree is a classic.

John

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well, according to Andrew McGregor, it is indeed Turandot that is BaL on 7th July, and not the Elgar. I look forward to it.

I've deleted the Elgar thread to avoid confusion.

[BBMmk2]

Well, according to Andrew McGregor, it is indeed Turandot that is BaL on 7th July, and not the Elgar. I look forward to it.

I've deleted the Elgar thread to avoid confusion.

What a pity!! :)

[Barbirollians]

I have the Callas/Serafin and the Mehta - which complement each other being very different . So they are enough for me .

[LHC]

I have Pavarotti/Mehta and Domingo/Karajan. The former is a classic, but the Karajan is let down by some dire DGG recording and some quite messy ensemble from the world's greatest - very hard to believe.

By a strange coincidence, I was reading an interesting discussion on another site earlier today which touched on these two recordings of Turandot. Some snippets:

"I absolutely adore Karajan’s Turandot for the grand yet meticulous reading (nobody conducts act 2 scene 1 quite like this) but I always wish for a miracle to combine Mehta’s venue, recording team and cast with Karajan’s orchestra and musical direction. That would have been perfect. Imagine the subtleties he could have extracted from Sutherlandnd Caballe!"

"Someone I used to work with once praised Karajan’s Turandot by describing it as “a long slow **** with someone you don’t like very much”"

"HvK’s Turandot reminds me a bit of Kleiber’s Tristan – both operas sound as if they have been re-imagined for the phonograph. In my youth, I loved them both. Now, I think I prefer more “honest” performances. BTW, I don’t think Sutherland or Caballe would have responded all that well to the HvK approach. I do dream that there exists a secret recording of the opera conducted by Herr Gott using Viennese forces with Birgit, Franco and Lee (Siepi as Timur) circa 1961. That would be a recording to die for."

In my view the Pavarotti/ Sutherland/ Caballe/ Mehta recording with the VPO is pretty much unsurpassable. The playing and sound quality is very good and that's an unbeatable cast.

I may be wrong, but I think the only complete recording with the Berio ending is the DVD from Salzburg with Gergiev conducting a rather odd production by David Pountney. The Berio ending represents an interesting response to and comment on Puccini's idiom and the cruelties inherent in the piece, but I don't think it is satisfactory as an ending of this opera. Alfano's ending at least sticks reasonably close to Puccini's plans, even if he is clearly a lesser composer.

[Flosshilde]

"Someone I used to work with once praised Karajan’s Turandot by describing it as “a long slow **** with someone you don’t like very much”"

That was praise?

I may be wrong, but I think the only complete recording with the Berio ending is the DVD from Salzburg with Gergiev conducting a rather odd production by David Pountney. The Berio ending represents an interesting response to and comment on Puccini's idiom and the cruelties inherent in the piece, but I don't think it is satisfactory as an ending of this opera. Alfano's ending at least sticks reasonably close to Puccini's plans, even if he is clearly a lesser composer.

I've seen that (in DVD not live ) & thought the production was very good - Ping Pang & Pong really savage, rather than the comic characters so many productions make them. I liked the Berio ending too: it seemed to have the right hesitancy & uncertainty. I tend to find thge usual ending, with Turandot suddenly swept away by lurve rather too unlikely, given her previous ideas.

[umslopogaas]

I have six versions of this, all on vinyl:

Inge Borkh (cond. Erede)
Joan Sutherland (cond. Mehta)
Birgit Nilsson (cond. Molinari-Pradelli)
Monserrat Caballe (cond. Alain Lombard. Who? -never otherwise heard of him)
Birgit Nilsson (cond. Leinsdorf)
Maria Callas (cond. Serafin)

I think my favourite is the Nilsson/Leinsdorf, though I wouldnt want to be without any of them. Wonderful stuff.

[mikealdren]

I've always loved the Nilsson/Leinsdorf too, it was the version I heard first and it's imprinted, although IIRC the Molinari-Pradelli version was generally more highly regarded.

Lombard conducted quite a lot of opera recordings although the only recordings I have are Offenbach, Perichole and Grande Duchesse both with Crespin and very good.

Mike

[verismissimo]

I wonder if Eva Turner will get a mention? Her "In questa reggia" from 1928 still unsurpassed.