Turandot. Hungarian National Opera. Margit Island Stage Budapest
June 7th 2019
What a marvellously enjoyable musical summer’s evening! ‘Smiles on a summer’s night’ indeed. The setting was magical and the deep backdrop of thick green woodland recalled the many times I visited the Stamford Shakespeare company when living and working in Lincolnshire aeons ago – even the sound of a police siren on a couple of occasions added to the enjoyment in a bizarrely inappropriate way.
Turandot has always, for me, been a problematical story, morally and dramatically. We have to believe that Calaf can switch his allegiance from the adoring little slave Liu (who has looked after his father) to the ice queen Turandot – and this once he has seen Liu tortured to the point of suicide – and at the end we have to believe, going by the music, that there is truly passionate and happy ending for two people who are meant to be together. I know that it has been argued that an element of the opera being unfinished was the Puccini, consciously or unconsciously, could not truly bring it to the end that the plot demands – and the final climactic repeat of Nessun Dorma in the dying bars of the work is, on every level, utterly ridiculous – other than it is highly effective to whip the audience up at the end for climactic applause. The utterly unconvincing character change that Turandot undergoes at the end where she declares the name of the prince, was a staging detail that brought home to me the points above; she slipped off her rich turquoise and gold robe to reveal a simple and pure white dress – a more inappropriate wearer of it thought would be hard to imagine.
The orchestra were excellent; yes, they were amplified, but it was well and subtly done and natural richness and balance came through all the time. The chorus/orchestra balance was very good and given the major role they play in this work that was only right and proper. It would be interesting to see a production where the chorus/the people were the main focus – almost as if the story could be seen through their eyes. In this productions they were very much a mass grouping – and the sort of situation where common moves by all or stillness as a group were the best possible responses. I am normally a great fan of creative and imaginative use of the chorus so that one feels it is a group of distinct individual rather than a solid mass but in this work, that is not really the best or most appropriate approach. Here the use of Tai Chi style moves at the start, and effectively sparingly throughout the rest of the performance was a highly effective way of suggesting this –as well as clearly signalling a very different cultural context that was achieved with a degree of originality and did not rely on tired old clichés and tropes about ’the exotic Orient’ which has all too often been the major feature of productions of this work.
The set was simple and effective. Wood (bamboo?) in rich browns and burnt gold provided an effective backdrop to the brighter splashes of colour conveyed by many of the costumes but there was not the extreme reliance on a very wide range of very vivid colours which can often give one something of a visual overload. There were many levels of the set and they were effectively used all the time. The story was well and clearly told and there was a fine balance between movement and stillness. The look was traditional but relatively subtle in its colour palette as I have indicated – and where there were vivid splashes of colour, they stood out all the more effectively for that reason. At the end of Act 1 the Calf’s entry into a circular tunnel of light as he commited to his fate was a very effective visual image – although, as per my comments above, he is much more going into the darkness rather than the light.
The entry of the Emperor was very fine as his elaborate pavilion was lifted slowly up to barely reveal the wizened figure inside – although the voice that sang was, thankfully, not a worn and aged.
The excellent visuals were matched by the vocal performances. As the Emperor, Istvan Roka had great impact as suggested while as Timur, Laszlo Szvetek was rich and powerfully-voiced. Pleasingly, Ping, Pang and Pong were considerably less irritating than they often are; the director had clearly kept a firm grip on them and they came across as more sympathetic than usual
And now to the big three – but of course while these are three key roles, they can be diminished (as can any major roles) if those with smaller roles around them are not up to the standard of the principals – but this did not happen here.
Cristina Pasaroui was a marvellous find. She had a rich smooth and, where necessary, unforcedly powerful voice that could fill the biggest of Puccini’s grateful vocal line while in her Act 1 aria she let forth a glorious well-supported whisper of tone that recalled the great Caballe. She was a fine actress too- this Liu was not just a simpering little girl…
Jose Cura was outstanding – in Acts 1 and 2 at least. The voice was full and rich-toned and even when at full volume, the almost treacly honeyed and unforced tone quality remained to enthral us. There was not visible move between the three registers either – there was just a seamless flow of wonderful tone. Sadly I felt that he was less fine in Act 3 – Nessun Dorma was very decent but it wasn’t the voice we heard in the first two acts.
When Szilvia Ralik started In Questa Reggia, I was soon VERY worried. She was hesitant, considerably out of tune, thin-voiced…I was NOT optimistic but I was very wrong. By the middle of the aria she was very sound and more or less doing justice to the music and by the end had found her vocal form which was superbly maintained for the rest of the performance. She was another singer who was absolutely unforced (quite an achievement for this role) and with virtually no visible gear changes between registers. Her ease and unforced power was exceptional by the end.
So a marvellous evening and I felt that summer had truly begin – both musically and weather-wise.