June 28, 2003: Turandot in Verona

2003-06-28 Turandot (G. Puccini), Arena di Verona

Turandot = Giovanna Casolla
Altoum = Aldo Bottion
Timur = Hao Jiang Tian
Calaf = José Cura
Liù = Micaela Carosi
Ping = Marco Camastra
Pong = Iorio Zennaro
Pang = Gianluca Floris
A mandarin = Giuseppe Riva
The prince of Persia = Angel Harkatz
First maidservant = Daniela Forapani
Second maidservant = Antonella D'Amico

Alain Lombard, conductor



Arena di Verona
28 June 2003 - 21.15

Turandot


Dramma lirico in 3 acts by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Giuseppe Adami e Renato Simoni


PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR Alain Lombard


DIRECTOR Yuri Alexandrov
Assistant Director Tatiana Karpacheva


SCENOGRAPHER Vjacheslav Okunev
COSTUME DESIGNER Vjacheslav Okunev
CHOIR MASTER Marco Faelli
Director of the Corps de Ballet Maria Grazia Garofoli
Light Designer Paolo Mazzon
Director of stage design Giuseppe De Filippi Venezia

Turandot 28.6.2003 with Jose Cura. Jose Cura sang wonderfully, all the bravos (and some shouting of "bis." they sounded more like dislike-shouting, than "Da Capo" in French) after his wonderful Nessun dorma.

It was a colorful, beautiful Turandot. But I did not like all of the directors ideas. The choreography of the crowd was disturbing, and some of the dancing was too. One could be distracted so that one suddenly did not know where Cura was. Cura looked dashing in the soldier-uniform, with all that black hair. It was definitely "there he is!!". But to make Calaf a soldier, was a fault. He is the unknown Prince, who is in exile, trying to hide from his enemies. And certainly as a soldier he would have seen Turandot before. So it was an illogical choice. But he looked great in the silver-armor.

All C´s got al lot of applause, Cura (Calaf), Cassolli (Turandot) and Caresi (Liu). But too much circus in this Turandot, to my taste.

The opera stopped early because of rain, when Turandot sings :"La mia gloria e finita!" We waited a bit, but the weather forecast was not good, so a bit over midnight it was all over. And I went back to my hotel in the rain and in Blitz und Donner!

"Non piangere, Liu!"

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