Gong show
La Cieca hears that tenor Dongwon Shin saved the day at Opera Australia last night (or would that be tomorrow night?) when he jumped in on barely a day's notice as Calaf in Turandot. And most of that "day" was spent on a plane from Chicago to Sydney! First reports are that the Sydney audience gave Shin a huge ovation "like nothing we've seen here in years."
Here's a clip of Shin in Turandot opposite Jennifer Wilson, his prima donna at Opera Australia.
Here's a clip of Shin in Turandot opposite Jennifer Wilson, his prima donna at Opera Australia.
POSTED at
3:52 PM
27 Comments:
Gawd, what a totally fabulous opera Turandot is. What a tragedy that Puccini didn't live to work out the problems he was having with the final duet and give the whole thing a final polish.
Mr. Shin was fine, it was nice to hear him take the high option in "Non, non Principessa" even if it was a bit more of a yelp than anything.
Is this going to be the era of of Chinese ( Korean?) singers as Yu Qiang Dai
is making his debut as Calaf at Covent garden next week.
Will they be restricted to Turandot by casting directors as Japanese sopranos seem to be in Butterfly?
Ben Heppner sang the earlier performances of Calaf and is reportedly in fine fettle.
Jennifer Wilson rocks my world. Great singer, great colleague! Thanks for this video!
Henry - as you mention it- I have always been surprised that Alfano isn't given more credit for the work he did in finishing Maestro Puccini's masterpiece.
If the opportunity to put his own stamp on the work was there, he clearly resisted the temptation and an extremely clever reworking of the themes and motifs already created by the master earlier in the work, make the conclusion to the opera almost seamless.
I think it is a pity so little credit seems to be passed his way and I've never seen any record of comments made by Alfano about the work- but I would love to hear them. Perhaps it can be taken as a credit to him that "the ending" is so well accepted- there IS nothing to add?
Alfano was privately very resentful of the way Toscanini brutally cut his completion. Certainly he made a more lasting job than the Berio completion which after its initial notoriety does not seem to have been widely taken up.
I do not agree that the join is seamless as Alfano had his own distinctive, though eclectic voice, but at least he seems to be coming into his own with recent productions of Cyrano and Sakuntala.
Is this clip form Australia, or another prduction with these two singers? Why is Gruber still singing Turandot at the MET - Wilson is far superior!
I saw Wilson when she subbed for indisposed Ms. Eaglen in Chicago's GOTTERDAMMERUNG. She was simply wonderful...I wondered where she was singing these days. Does anyone know if she's made a debut at the Met yet?
I think there are any number of reasons why Alfano's completion remains standard--e.g., it's the one that everyone already knows--that have little to do with the quality of Berio's.
How nice to hear such rich and full voices singing Calaf and Turandot. Jennifer Wilson certainly rocked my world Canadien this morning while listening to this video!
Alfano made the cuts, not Toscanini. Toscanini went running back to Ricordi, demanding that Alfano produce something closer to Toscanini's memory of Puccini's thoughts on the finale, and Alfano resentfully complied. He had no choice. The first version is, in fact, more in his own voice. It is also long, diffuse, and dramatically inferior to the second version. But it is worth hearing. There is a recording with Josephine Barstow and Lando Bartolini. I think the Berio fails as stylisticly inconsistent with the rest of the opera. It also doesn't seem to make sense theatrically -- it's got that long orchestral passage -- what are they supposed to be doing onstage?
About the Berio....
There had to have been a complete libretto written before Puccini started Act III. This would tell us whether the chorus gets those final lines or not.
Or is someone going to say that Puccini was rewriting the libretto himself as he was writing Act III?
If Alfano-Toscanini (or Puccini himself in his notes) added the words of the final chorus themselves, we surely would have heard about it by now. Was Berio really following the original libretto, which does not have those lines for the chorus?
I'm sure I read years ago that there was a much longer original Alfano ending.
Then, there is the shortened Alfano ending (which is what Barstow recorded).
Then, there is the shortened-even-more Alfano-Toscanini ending, which we are used to.
When people talk about the complete Alfano ending, aren't they really talking about the "shortened" complete Alfano ending?---and none of us has really heard the "complete" complete COMPLETE Alfano ending?
I can confirm from Sydney that indeed the opening night of Turandot was a great success for all involved. Ms. Wilson has impressed everyone here (even me!) and I can't wait to hear her again later this week. I also attended the dress rehearsal (held whilst Mr Shin was on the plane over, no doubt!) and it was fabulous except for the terrible Calaf cover they had marking his way through everything.
I'm loving Jenifer Wilson. Never heard her before. And I definitely wanna hear more of Dongwon Shin. Exciting stuff. That's why I love this website. Thanks, La Cieca.
I'm so glad to read from the Royal Opera website that Dai Yu Qiang will be singing there soon. Back in China he is already the top tenor of his generation, and believe me when I say that the place is so populous that he has no need to make his fortune by stepping outside. (whereas lesser singers make their way to Singapore). Now that he's taking on leading roles in the international opera centres I hope he will gain even more prominence worldwide.
If you google Jennifer Wilson and Turandot, you will find "In questa reggia" and "the riddle scene" from the same production. It is available on Google Video and Youtube. I think this is from Houston? It seems to have been posted by Wilson's management, Neil Funkhouser. He also manages Shin. I also saw her Brunnhilde in Chicago. Would love to see her again.
According to Ashbrook and Powers, there is only Alfano I and Alfano II. What's on the Barstow record is as much as there is. Toscanini himself never put hands to the score; and never publicly performed any of the opera other than what was completed and scored by Puccini.
Steven Mercurio has evidently also made a completion from the sketches. Does anyone know what that is like?
Good point that the final chorus is missing in Berio.
Rysanekfreak, perhaps you are thinking of Alfano II with and without "Del primo pianto."
Yu Qiang Dai was scheduled for Boheme last year but had to cancel. Sadly, the night I was booked the replacement was someone I'd never heard of and don't want to hear again, and despite daily phonecalls I could not secure a ticket for when a certain Rolando Villazón was covering.
I think he also sang Cavaradossi a couple of years ago.
Gert
yniold - Korean tenor Ted Lee sang a Calaf in Madison a year or two ago but then had a Cavaradossi the following season.
Cuprousone: I believe that Toscanini performed the incomplete version only on the opening night of the opera. On the subsequent nights, he conducted the Alfano completion (which he had Alfano cut down as has been noted).
Toscanini conducted only the dress rehearsal (with Alfano II) and the prima. The rest of the run was led by Ettore Panizza. Toscanini, it seems, never conducted Turandot again.
My source is Wm Ashbrook and Harold Power's Puccini's Turandot: The End of the Great Tradition (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/ref=s_sf_b_as/104-6265220-3115921). It's not a model of clarity on the issue of the completion of Act III, but the events surrounding the prima are pretty certain (except perhaps what Toscanini actually said when he put down the baton.)
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The Los Angeles Opera did the Berio ending a few seasons ago. I didn't like it at all. It made no pretense of being stylistically consistent with what Puccini completed. There was one part that sound like Boulez' great Repons. Now, I love the Boulez piece but that soundworld has nothing to do with Puccini.
The Berio....
For those who have seen the Berio ending, exactly what did Turandot and Calaf do during that long orchestral passage? Since most Turandots and Calafs just stand there (and fear the next high notes), I can't imagine that they engaged in some sort of busy, yet meaningful stage action all of a sudden.
I've sung with Jennifer many times (including in that Chicago Gotterdamerung) and SHE RAWKS! I also have worked with Dongwon- and he was a great colleague to work with (although neither of got any performances). I hope the best for both of their careers!
A slight side-track, but I feel honour bound to report on Ben Heppner's Calaf at Covent Garden last night (having been rather harsh about his Lohengrin Met broadcast in May). He was on fabulous form - a little tight in the upper middle voice to start with, but he soon warmed up, and by the riddle scene was pouring out streams of wonderful virile ringing sound. Nessun Dorma was stylishly shaped (c.f. Galouzine last year!), crowned with a very easy sounding (and in no way foreshortened) B, and he just got better and better right up until the end. The man is on TOP form.
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