(Photo: Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini)

Warner Classics has produced a new recording of Puccini’s ‘Turandot’ with a dream cast of some of today’s finest singers, all under the direction of Antonio Pappano.

After a week of recording sessions, a concert version was offered on March 12 at the Sala Santa Cecilia, in the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. Expectations were high as this performance featured both Sondra Radvanovsky and Jonas Kaufmann in the lead roles of Turandot and Calaf.

Since there is no mention in the program of a director involved in the concert, it must be assumed that all the movements of the singers belong to their own art.

A revelation

Radvanovsky’s first entry, descending the back stairs to refuse the Prince of Persia’s pardon, was breathtaking in the violence, strength and anger that the soprano managed to imprint in her movements. Turandot’s highlight is his opening aria in the second act, “In questa reggia”. It’s a difficult piece. The range calls for both a strong low and high register, dramatic voluminous sections and a mezza voce legato. Radvanovsky’s voice perfectly met all the requirements. His dark, dry tone with haunting volume and projection shone throughout the tune, constantly navigating between high A and natural B and keeping the line fluid with crisp, sure attacks from the fiendish intervals that Puccini wrote. Radvanovsky’s voice was menacing, dangerous, and loud without sounding strident in complicated high-pitched lines like “Quel grido e quella morte!” Her voice is so resonant and powerful that she doesn’t need to push the sound to make it dramatic and audible over the loud orchestra. His voice always rings out, no matter how many instruments or singers are playing at the same time. The two high Cs that the soprano must deliver while the whole choir and the orchestra play during “Mi vuol nelle tue braccia a forza, rilutante, fremente? were thundering, bright and perfectly audible. His voice definitely sounds like it’s been artificially amplified, but it’s not.

The soprano can control her bulky instrument and wisely uses her bel canto technique, previously exhibited in Naples where she sang the three long final scenes of Donizetti’s ‘Three Queens’. This gives her the ability to sing mezza voce and legato lines like “Principlessa Lou Ling…” and sound mysterious and even melancholy. His song is a mixture of strength and delicacy. She was powerful and strong during her long final aria in act three, contrasting with her vulnerable and fragile side portrayed in “Che è mai di me?” which was sung with an exquisite mezza voce.

Radvanovsky offered such a powerful and significant both vocally and dramaturgically characterization of Princess Pice’ Turandot that it’s hard to believe it was her first role. She is truly one of the greatest sopranos of this generation and her rendition of Turandot may well become legendary.

lack of strength

Neither the role of Calaf, Prince of Tartary, nor singing in a symphony auditorium with the orchestra placed behind the singers, suited German tenor and opera superstar Jonas Kaufmann. His tone and timbre are beautifully velvety and dark, his phrasing is elegant, and he makes fascinating use of mezza voce, but his voice sounded guttural, small, and lacked squillo. The problem with Calaf’s role is that the orchestra plays mostly loud when it moves into the upper register. Unfortunately, the tenor simply couldn’t be heard adequately for most of his performance. It was most evident on a big climactic B-flat, as Calaf shouts “Turandot!” before the Prince of Persia was beheaded, which was distant and barely audible. The same happened during “Non piangere Liù” where Kaufmann demonstrated his legato singing, mezza voce and pure Italian fraseo during the first verse. He sounded a brilliant B-flat in “Che non sorride piu”, but as the voices of Liu, Timur, Ping, Pang, Pong and the choir join in, and the orchestra builds in intensity, the tenor has struggled to cut through the sound mass. .

Also, the way the tenor sang the passagio and the high notes scrambled his diction and all the vowels sounded round and with an “o” quality. This was quite noticeable in Calaf’s famous aria “Nessun Dorma”, while in lines like “sulla tua boca” and “Di legua, o note”, where the tenor is supposed to express on high A naturals, Kaufmann managed to emit safe A’s but excessively darkened and rounded the sound to the point of making the lines incomprehensible. It was not ideal for Kaufmann’s voice to have Radvanovsky as a partner, who overpowered him whenever they sang together, especially during the duet in act three.

Despite this, there were still times when Kaufmann shone. The second act suited the tenor’s vocalitá better, with Kaufmann delivering sure A naturals and a B flat throughout the “Riddles” scene. “Nessun Dorma” was the best aria for the German tenor. Pappano measured the sound of the orchestra, giving prominence to the tenor’s voice, and Kaufmann sounded heroic and lyrical as a result, crowning the aria with a bright, sure natural B (although it lacked squillo).

Simplicity & Beauty

Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho sang the role of the sad and loving Liù. She is famous for her great dramatic portrayals of Butterfly and Violetta and Jaho has once again shown her talent for stunning vocal characterization and the deep honesty and sensitivity she imprints in every role. She was humble, gentle, fragile and determined to the point of her ultimate self-sacrifice. Liù is a short role that is relegated to a few spare lines, but it has two tunes and is essential to the plot of the opera. It requires mezza voce and pianissimi singing up to B flat. Jaho colored his dark lyrical voice to sound youthful and innocent, emitting crystal-clear sound in his line “perche un di nella regia”, capped off by his first B-flat pianissimi of the night. She sang her first act tune “Signore ascolta!” with extreme simplicity, completely effortless, navigating the long legato lines freely and sustaining a long floating final B-flat. J

Jaho’s voice isn’t great, but it projects amazingly and carries perfectly over heavy orchestration. His lines were present and strong in “Non piangere Liù”, with resonant loud B-flats overtaking the voices of all the other soloists and the forte orchestra. Her second-act aria, “Tu che del gel sei cinta”, was an opportunity for Jaho to express all the drama and depictions of pain for which she is famous. Her rendition of the tune was extremely moving and reflected the pathos of the character’s sacrifice, as she had to kill herself to keep Calaf’s secret and protect him from the “ice princess” Turandot, demonstrating her irresistible love for the prince. She was warmly rewarded by the audience at the end of the concert with a loud ovation.

The prolific Italian double bass Michele Pertusi sang the short role of Timur. His voice grew and darkened with age so that he could vocally express the dignity of this old blind and long-suffering father. Her portrayal of the short scene following Liu’s death was menacing and strong in “Ah! Delitto orrendo,” delivering a strong, thunderous high F and a securely held E-flat in “Si vendicherá! while being sad in “Liu! Bonta. The characters of Ping, Pang and Pong, played by Mattia Olivieri, Gregory Bonfatti and Siyabonga Maqungo respectively, were fun, lively and comical. Their voices blended perfectly, even if the bright voice of Maqungo was sometimes more present.

Antonio Pappano presented a critical edition of the score with new music in the final scene written by Franco Alfano in 1925, rather than the ending that is traditionally played. He gave a passionate reading of the score, extracting all the exoticism and oriental rhythms that Puccini inscribed in his score. He opted for slow tempos in general and the opening scene was perhaps too heavy, but Pappano knows how to keep the tension in the orchestra. He accompanies the singers at all times, as if the orchestra were breathing with them, creating examples of delicacy and beauty, especially in Liu’s tunes. He is dynamic, playing soft piannisimi to grand crescendos and fortissimo. It underlined all the timbre richness of the score. The sound of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia was overwhelming and exciting and the long interventions of the Coro e Voci Bianche dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia were brilliant. They were strategically placed in the seats at the back of the auditorium where they were able to maintain social distancing and therefore could sing without masks, and the sound was full, rich and powerful.

A great concert of Puccini’s “Turandot” with the incredible performances of sopranos Sondra Radvanovsky and Ermonela Jaho. Conductor Antonio Pappano was at his best and led the orchestra wonderfully. This “Turandot” promises to be one of the best recordings of recent years.