Turandon’t
La Cieca listened to Sirius for a while tonight, but then her ears began to bleed. When the best singing comes from Margaret Juntwait… but I gotta tell ya, folks. Is there any way that the Tony (“Tut-Tut”) Tommasini-reviewed earlier performance of this mess could have been any worse? (La Cieca is interested in any and all documentation of that dread Night of the Living Licitra; you know the email address.)
my first turandot was audrey stottler, whatever happened to her?
in that vein, i never saw him live, but whatever happened to bounty hunter carl tanner?
My first turandot was also Audrey, back in 95-96 in Cincinnati. I stood 10 feet away from her as she sang In questa reggis. OMG! That was so amazing!
My first Turandot was Marton in her return to the Met in the late 90s. It was a love-fest.
My first Turandot! Great Opera-L thread subject line.
Mine was Linda Kelm, very good,with the LOUD, METALLIC Jon Frederic West and Maria Spacagns at NYCO. The current Met cast should live so long as to match that, even though at the time no one would have said so.
Spacagna was ideal- she remains my favorite (live encountered) Liu.
Krunoslav, I saw one of those NYCO Turandots with Kelm too. Not sure of the rest of the cast, but I was impressed by Linda Kelm. I also liked the production NYCO used back in the 70s and 80s more than the Beaton or Zef versions I’ve seen at the Met.
My first Turandot was a matinee in 1970:Nilsson, Domingo, and Amara.
My first TURANDOT cast was Elinor Ross, Franco Corelli, and Edda Moser. I remember particularly Corelli wandering off stage as Liu started to get tortured in Act III to do whatever it is tenors do when they get tired of just standing there while other characters are singing—though he did manage to meander back in time to witness her moment of death.
Moser? That’s one Liu I wouldn’t want to mess with!
I don’t think the clip posted above is bad and certainly not an embararasment. She didn’t sound out of tune to me and her phrasing and diction are good. C’mon, it’s grueling music. Dimitrova was absolutely fantastic in this passage IMO – very moving actually. Toward the end of the passage it was like she took the sound orchestra and chorus on her laser beam voice and swung them around the room before flinging them into in oblivion – and she did this with anguish and despair and desperation in her voice. I still have a cassette of a broacast in the mid 80s.
My intro to Turandot was the Borkh recording. In 81 I bought the Cigna vinyl in Rome and then lost it later in the decade in an altered state change of household. My first live T was Monserrat Caballe in SF in 77. Now that was something.
I heard Mr. Webb as Pollione in Philadephia. I thought he was about as unsatisfactory as Goerke. I have seen her in Handel, Bellini and Wagner and I just don’t get what people rave about.
My First Turandot was in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl with Andrea Gruber before she burned out, Richard Margison and the amazing Hei Kyung Hong. Joseph Frank sang the Emperor from on top of the bowl’s catwalk. It was cool.
My first STAGED (live) Turandot was last night. Lise Lindstrom sounded great, but she didn’t seem that invovled. Licitra was more involved, and he, quite honestly, did a rather passible job. (I mean, I was expecting a disaster.) The B at the end of the aria was weird: it was like he started it, it wasn’t quite there and then he got it about two seconds after he started it and it was gold. As expected Liu stole the show. But at the end of the day, no matter what the cast was, good or bad, I can say “My First Turandot was Zeffirelli’s Production.”
Nice to hear that Joseph Frank is still out there. I just rewatched the 1982 telecast of “Der Rosenkavalier” with Kiri, Tatie, Kurt Moll and Judy Blegen and Joseph Frank was the Valzacchi.
From the orchestra seat where I was, it seemed to me that Kovaleska as Liu had the darker, bigger voice than Lindstrom. Lindstrom had the tops but the middle is thin. Licitra was slightly improved from the premiere but still can’t produce legato or centred tone when singing below fortissimo. Try to be lyrical and the center falls out of the voice – think late Del Monaco and you will know what I mean. Licitra isn’t as worn out as Mario was in the mid-1960′s and 70′s. Licitra also made a false musical entry (early) and had to repeat the beginning of a phrase. He is going from sounding like the real thing to Ermanno Mauro reborn.
BTW: where is Andrea Gruber and has she really retired? What is she up to? Will she make a return (not a comeback)?
I’ve always wondered what it must be like to be in the house for one of these ‘ass-clenching’ wretched performances. I finally had my chance at the ‘Ariadne’ dress at WNO by watching Par Lindskog self-destruct as Bacchus. I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life at an opera.
It’s so easy to criticize, but when you’ve had a similar moment onstage when NOTHING seems to be clicking, it’s horrendous and you just want to die. Ah what it must have been like to have witnessed one of Caruso’s ‘glass-throat’ performances…