From Mark Swed's review, LA Times, May 27 -

   ...preoccupation with context pervades the 16 minutes of music Berio
   has provided for "Turandot." Berio is far more faithful to Puccini's
   sketches than was Alfano. Yet Berio cannot but hear these disembodied,
   far-from-final thoughts of Puccini without trying to imagine all the
   other music that was floating around in Puccini's head at the time,
   especially Wagner, late Mahler and early Schoenberg.

   Berio also acknowledges that Puccini wrote himself into a dramatic
   corner from which there is no solution. Alfano settled for a loud,
   happy ending, recycling what he could from the earlier parts of the
   score. Berio fades out in mysterious angst that may not make all
   singers or audiences happy but that acknowledges the sophistication
   of Puccini's score and of modern dramatic needs.

   Berio's new ending was first heard in a concert performance of
   "Turandot" given by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo
   Chailly in January.  Listening to a recording of that performance,
   I initially had my doubts about Berio's tactics.  It sounded too much
   like Wagner and Mahler and too little like either Puccini or Berio.
   But Saturday night, Kent Nagano made it work splendidly in the theater.
   In his second outing as Los Angeles Opera's principal conductor,
   Nagano rethought "Turandot" from the ground up in an illuminating
   performance that had Puccini's orchestral score sounding startlingly
   fresh, as if preparing the way for Berio.

   http://www.calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Search-X!ArticleDetail-60693,00.html

Janos Gereben/SF
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