Seattle Opera’s “Turandot” is a lavish and thrilling spectacle befitting its fantastic subject—and hands down one of the best productions I’ve seen them do.
The opera is Puccini’s elaboration on a supposedly Persian fairy tale about a bloodthirsty princess in ancient China’s Imperial City, a place teeming with pomp and ritual. Fortunately, the design team of director/choreographer Renaud Doucet and set/costume designer André Barbe not only captured the pageantry but also restrained it from overshadowing the opera’s human drama. What keeps the spectacle from being all show and no emotional substance is its flesh-and-blood story of a princess whose glacial heart is thawed by love.
Turandot has sworn to destroy men to avenge her ancestor, Princess Lo-u-ling, who was raped and murdered. To win Turandot’s hand, a suitor must answer three riddles or literally lose his head. The opera begins as the Prince of Persia is about to be beheaded and Prince Calaf, glimpsing Turandot, is so smitten he takes on the challenge 40 other suitors have failed.
It’s not easy to warm to a heroine whose robe sports the heads of her former suitors. Plus, she has less than 20 minutes of singing time onstage for us to get to know her. On opening night last Saturday, soprano Lori Phillips was also hampered toward the opera’s end when some of Turandot’s reactions seemed to come from nowhere, making her final emotional thaw less convincing than it should have been. It was a disappointment in an otherwise flawless staging in which the director moved and danced a small city of performers on and off a confined set with a grace that flowed and punctuated dramatic moments in a manner rare for a cast so large.
Phillips does, however, have several Turandots to her credit plus the dramatic soprano oomph to carry her voice over the entire chorus and through stratospheric leaps from middle C to high A in the aria “In questa reggia,” including a dueling high C with Calaf. And the tension between Phillips’ Turandot and Calaf in the riddle scene was nerve-rackingly spellbinding.
As should be the case, Phillips had strong competition for our sympathies from soprano Lina Tetriani as the slave girl Liù, who is in unrequited love with Calaf, and tenor Antonello Palombi as Calaf. In her Seattle Opera debut, Tetriani’s voice, including her high end, was full-bodied and warmly dark. Her arias “Sinote ascolta” and at her death were so beautiful and moving, it was tough to be well disposed to Turandot.
Palombi was every inch the hero, from his commanding physicality to his powerful voice, which even at top volume was as smooth and bracingly lovely as a prime single-malt Scotch. Calaf’s aria “Nessum dorma” can be melodramatic, but Palombi’s was gorgeously nuanced, garnering show-stopping applause.
Comic relief comes from Turandot’s ministers Ping, Pang and Pong. Patrick Carfizzi as Ping, Julius Ahn as Pang and Joseph Hu as Pong were funny, but also had a lovely, poignant scene pining for their prior blissful country life.
Peter Rose was resoundingly noble as Timur, Peter Kazaras suitably regal as Emporor Atoum, and Ashraf Sewaitam a sonorous Mandarin.
Conductor Asher Fisch led the orchestra with rousing finesse, although they occasionally overwhelmed even the powerful Palombi. The Seattle Opera Chorus did some amazing singing and acting.
Puccini’s final opera is the culmination of his life’s learning, and Seattle Opera has definitely done it justice.
Seattle Opera’s “Turandot” plays at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., through Sunday, Aug. 18. Prices $25-$155. Tickets/information: 389-7676, www.seattleopera.org.
Freelance writer Maggie Larrick lives in the Seattle area.
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