Turandot, Boheme Opera Company, November 5, 2006

November 6, 2006 by
Filed under: Fancy Shmancy, Music 

Here are two names to remember – Benjamin Warschawski and Olga Chernisheva.  If you follow opera, you WILL be hearing these names again.  You just might have to pay a lot more to actually see them.

Carolyn and I made our twice a year trek to the Trenton War Memorial to see Giacomo Puccini‘s Turnadot performed by The Boheme Opera Company.  The Franco Alfano ending was used.  This was a Sunday afternoon matinee.

The short version of the story:  It’s a fairy tale of ancient China.  The law states that in order to marry Princess Turandot, a suitor must ring a gong and then answer 3 riddles.  If he fails, he is executed.  If he succeeds, he wins his bride.  Calaf, the exiled Prince of Tartary and his father the exiled King, along with their servant Liu, come to Peking and Calaf is entranced with the Princess.  He rings the gong, and then the real fun ensues.  He successfully answers the riddles, and Turandot is horrified that she’ll have to marry.  She gets the unknown prince to agree that if she can discover his name by dawn, he will die.  Then the whole city spends the night trying to get the name under penalty of death.  He reveals the name to Turandot, and her heart melts and she marries him anyway.

This opera is interesting in part because Puccini died before he completed it.  Just after Liu’s funeral scene, Puccini died of a heart attack while undergoing experimental (in 1924) radiation therapy for throat cancer.  The opera was completed by Franco Alfano – a student of Puccini’s and a fully-qualified composer in his own right – under the direction of Toscanini.  I am not particularly fond of the duet that Alfano wrote, but the ending is every bit as magical as I’m sure Puccini imagined.

(For those who have read my opera tales before – nothing went wrong with the production.  I usually get some disaster, but for this night I only spotted one mistake by a chorus member.)

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By far, the oral fireworks of the night came from Benjamin Warschawski in the tenor role of Calaf.  The character gets the most famous aria from this opera – Nessun Dorma – “None shall sleep”.  (HERE by Pavarotti)  Warschawski performed it note-perfect with as much emotion as I’ve ever seen.  It was clear that he both sings well AND understood the emotions behind the words.  In fact, he performed it just as well as Pavarotti in the clip that I linked to.  Unfortunately, Puccini didn’t leave a gap for a standing ovation at that point in the opera – we had to wait until the curtain call.

One thing about regional opera – you almost always get a standing ovation from some of the audience during the curtain call.  I think that people come to the opera in part to be a part of such a celebration.  However, this opera got a richly deserved Standing O from the crowd – about 80% of the crowd were on their feet before the minor characters had taken their bows and 100% were on their feet by the company bow.  As always, the Boheme orchestra was excellent and the sets and props and lighting and such were wonderful.  When Warschawski took his bow, the roar from the crowd was deafening.

The one downside to the production was the performance of Othalie Graham as Turandot.  This is a tough opera part for anyone – Puccini wrote more high C’s into this part than I’ve ever seen in a soprano role.  However, Graham didn’t seem up to the part in this performance.  Her high C’s were loud but she never quite reached the pitch, and her staging was wooden – even at the end when her heart had supposedly melted.  I have to wonder whether or not she had a cold for this performance.  However, she was creditable in this very difficult role.

Next up for the company – Rigoletto April 20th at 8pm and April 22nd at 3pm.  The company gives a pre-curtain talk about the opera 1 hour and 15 minutes before curtain – I strongly recommend arriving in time for it.

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