Date: |
Tue, 28 May 2002 01:33:48 -0700 |
Subject: |
|
From: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
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
[log in to unmask]
|
|
|