Turandot

(Opera Australia)

Puccini's final opera about the Peking Princess who tests her suitors with three riddles and if they fail, as all have, has them beheaded. Charming.

I think this is essentially the same production I saw first about fifteen years ago at the Opera House. Then it seemed as lavish to me as a 1940s MGM musical but now it seems...well...exotic. The small Opera Theatre stage is packed solid in the opening act much like the scene in the Japanese wave video which by coincidence Andrew posted the day before my attendance.

It's a pity Puccini didn't live to complete this work. He might have seen the hit that the final act opening aria Nessun Dorma was to become and so might have provided a musical break to allow for audience reaction. On Saturday, as I have observed previously, the aria was over and Ping, Pang and Pong were already twirling around the stage attempting to discover Calaf's name, before segments of the audience realising the big moment had passed delivered a burst of applause over what was effectively the next scene.

I know that the opera was completed from notes that Puccini had outlined but I wonder too if he might have done something about the ending. I always feel having spent the best part of three hours resisting every suitor vehemently, including Calaf, that Turandot's abrupt conversion to love at virtually the last minute doesn't ring true. Then again most operas to my limited knowledge fail to ring true in some way.

Just lie back and enjoy the music and the singing, which I did on Saturday. As the ambitious Calaf, Rosario La Spina sounded fine to my layman's ear though unfortunately to my eyes his body type is not modern day leading man material. The audience, presumably numbering plenty with superior knowledge about the craft than I have, reacted strongly in their applause to Daria Masiero (Liu), Andrew Moran (Ping), Graeme Macfarlane (Pang) and David Corcoran (Pong). Overall the audience  reacted warmly to the whole performance.