by Giacomo Puccini (Sung in Italian with English surtitles)   Berio ending Alfano ending Turandot Christine Groeneveld Lisa Livingston Liù Janis Kelly Christine Arand Calaf Weilong Tao Luis Rodriguez Timur Harry Peeters Harry Peeters Ping Nathaniel Webster Nathaniel Webster Pang Colin Judson Colin Judson Pong Andrew Dickinson Andrew Dickinson Mandarin Roger Smeets Roger Smeets Altoum David Phipps-Davis David Phipps-Davis       Conductor Jeremy Carnall Director William Relton Designer Cordelia Chisholm Lighting Designer Paul J Need     Dorset Opera Chorus: Chorus Master - James Henderson Dorset Opera Orchestra: Leader - Robert Gibbs

The Coade Theatre, Bryanston, Blandford Forum
Thursday 19 and Saturday 21 July 2007 at 7.00pm - Berio ending
Friday 20 July at 7.00pm and Sunday 22 July at 4.00pm - Alfano ending


Everyone knows the tenor aria ‘Nessun dorma…’ made internationally famous by Luciano Pavarotti and used as the theme to the 1990 World Cup, but how many realise it comes from Turandot? Puccini died before he could finish the opera. His colleague Franco Alfano completed it from the maestro’s music sketches, but the conductor Toscanini later insisted on cuts. For years, scholars were unhappy with the Alfano endings, suggesting that he hadn’t developed the two main characters as Puccini would have liked. Then, in 2001, the Italian composer Luciano Berio wrote a new ending. In yet another coup for Dorset Opera, we presented the British Stage Première of the Berio ending and, for comparison, alternated it with the regularly-performed shorter Alfano ending.

Princess Turandot makes a habit of having her suitors killed when they can’t answer the three impossible riddles that will win her hand in marriage. The tables are turned when the mysterious Prince Calaf arrives in town. After witnessing the beheading of the Prince of Persia, Calaf becomes besotted with the ice-maiden princess, and determines she shall be his. Needless to say, he answers the riddles correctly but recognises that Turandot is appalled at the thought of giving herself to a man. To spare her this fate, Calaf sets her a challenge of his own: “Find out my name before dawn, and I will forfeit my life!” The slave-girl Liù (who cares for Calaf’s blind father, Timur, the deposed King of Tartary) persuades the throng that she is the only one who knows the prince’s name. She loves Calaf but knows her love to be unrequited. Liù is tortured, but rather than give away the secret, she takes her own life. Turandot remains alone to confront Calaf, who at length takes her in his arms, forcing her to kiss him. Experiencing passion for the first time, Turandot weeps. Calaf, now sure of his victory, reveals his name...Love! William Relton’s production and Cordelia Chisholm’s designs – surely the most lavish in the history of Dorset Opera – will astound you. If you’ve never been to an opera in your life, make this the first. You won’t regret it!

Wei-long Tao as Calaf and Janis Kelly as Liu © Paul J Need	Christine Groeneveld (Turandot) and Wei-long Tao (Calaf) © Paul J Need	Emperor Altoum with his attendants © Paul J Need

…Dorset Opera's 30-odd productions since 1974 include the UK stage premiere of Puccini's Edgar, they mounted the European first staging of Salvator Rosa by Carlos Gomes (the Brazilian Verdi), the British premiere of Donizetti's Gabriella di Vergy and Maria Padilla, and of Hunyadi Laszlo by Hungary's home-grown Donizetti, Ferenc Erkel. Its landmark stagings include Boito's Mefistofele, Ponchielli's La Gioconda and Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila. Few else have such a track record; at its best, Dorset can rival WNO or Opera North.

Earlier this season, Dorset pulled off another Puccini 'first', winning the right from publishers Ricordi to mount the UK stage premiere of Turandot in the dramatically different revised ending by Luciano Berio.

William Relton has won Dorset performers' adulation and audience admiration alike for his cogent, involving, clear direction, not least their 2006 Hérodiade. This Turandot (Dorset daringly alternated the Berio version with the Alfano, starring Lisa Livingston and Luis Rodriguez) was a production oozing with dramatic strength and relevant ideas: tense and straining at the leash, thanks mainly to the strikingly athletic, forceful Shanghai-born Wei-long Tao as a superbly unyielding Calaf, and Christine Groeneveld's awkwardly moving, yet stately and almost childlike princess.

Relton has worked wonders with Dorset's large young chorus, trained up in just a few weeks and still one of the most impressive in the country. He works partly by striking stage blocks: fluent and fixed by turns (their beautifully attentive, candle-bearing Act III was superla¬tive), and peppered with youthful panache, they added a lot, making Helpmann-like scapegoats, at one point, of the doomed hopefuls. The singing (the second chorus, for instance, with its flavour of pentatonic orientalism) was never less than first-rate under conductor Jeremy Carnall. At one point, the chorus literally formed a parade of singing (rather than talking) heads.

Designer Cordelia Chisholm has a gift for sensing what works theatrically; with spare visual detail she can conjure an atmosphere (here pinks and greys, picked out by the indigo-whites of Paul Need's lighting; and ultimately yielding to pure blues). All was icy, apt and relevant - and enhanced by Dorset's beautifully conceived, stylishly fashioned costuming.

Hovering above a steeply raked stage, Groeneveld's Turandot, a portly Lady of Shalott, was a vocal treat (though Livingston is the sup¬pler performer). The big scena at her second entry was fabulously delivered; when she finally descended, Relton unmasked a sensational blocking, like some Caravaggio or Velazquez pietà. The episode where Berio's more artful version permits Puccini to delineate Turandot's emotional and spiritual change proved its point, lending sense to the opera in a way the brusque Alfano denouement surely doesn't.

Most gripping was Tao's Calaf: it's a stupendous voice (just twice he belted), with staggering reserves in high tessitura. He's clearly Emperor material (so no wonder Turandot melts) - a figure of epic authority, countered by the enjoyable bowler-hatted trio of Ping, Pang and Pong, all variable-height buffoons: bass Nathaniel Webster (the nattiest) plus the incisive Colin Judson and Andrew Dickinson. Chris¬tine Arand took on Liu (Janis Kelly doubled), both full of touching pathos and lyric poignancy. Carnall managed the achingly long build¬ups - notably the suspense before the abrupt striking of the gong - handsomely. Dorset's orchestra was stupendous and the final dying strains of Berio's concluding fix, utterly bewitching.

Roderic Dunnett

Dorset Opera’s British première of Luciano Berio’s ending to Turandot impresses.

Dorset Opera is a…tightly run outfit…who miraculously contrive to get the show on in an 11-day summer camp at Bryanston…Under Jeremy Carnall’s inspirational baton, the musical standard was amazingly high… especially from the orchestra…The cast was splendid. Christine Groeneveld, a statuesque and glamorous Dutch soprano, displayed…huge promise in the gruelling part of Turandot, while Janis Kelly’s Liù was spellbindingly sung and heart-rending.

Hugh Canning

…bracingly conducted by Jeremy Carnall in a fresh, clear, unfussy staging by William Relton, who directed this enterprising company’s successful Hérodiade last year. With a raked stage, and relying on costumes to provide colour and variety, the designer, Cordelia Chisholm worked wonders…an eye-catching and compelling staging. To achieve all this in a fortnight is nothing short of phenomenal. What a tonic.

Fiona Maddocks

The chorus rose magnificently to the challenge…with Relton’s fine direction, there were moments of sheer terror, relief and pathos…I have never seen or heard the roles of Ping, Pang and Pong better performed… And this was the year in which the Company truly came of age, with a magnificent production, rich in stunning singing, brilliant musicianship, fine acting and an ensemble that would be a credit to a major professional company. The 2007 Dorset Opera [production] will set new standards not just for this pioneering company, but for operatic performance in the region.

KN

A British première in rural Dorset is always a cause for celebration and few companies know how to do it better than Dorset Opera…A starry cast is led by Wei-long Tao as the suitor of the Ice Princess Turandot, played with steely majesty by Christine Groeneveld, but it is Janis Kelly who brings forth the tears in her peerless performance as the sacrificial servant Liù…A particularly fine orchestra…under the baton of conductor Jeremy Carnall almost succeeds in stealing the entire show from under the noses of the singers! A memorable evening of wonderful music, superbly played.

Marion Cox

Further review excerpts to follow.