Ricordi Archive

PUCCINI: Turandot (2016) – Orch. del Teatro alla Scala di Milano/Riccardo Chailly – Decca

by Audiophile Audition | Apr 5, 2017 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Something’s different about this production. PUCCINI: Turandot (2016, Luciano Berio completion) Cast: Nina Stemme, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Maria Agresta , Coro di voci bianche dell’Accademia Teatro alla Scala Orch.: Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano Director: Riccardo Chailly Studio: Decca. Blue-ray [1/27/17] Run Time: 130 minutes Video: 1.77:1 Color Audio: DTS-HD 5.1, PCM Stereo Subtitles: English, German, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, French, Italian Rating: ***** What is the most outstanding feature of this recording of Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot? Is it the vividly recorded sound under the expert baton of conductor Riccardo Chailly? How about those well-miked singers, who manage to sound far better than they did in a recent Metropolitan Opera production of Turandot? Or the staging and lighting at Italy’s La Scala, so lush and regal as to be almost overwhelming (particularly when viewed on a 4K television)? Perhaps the excellent acting, judiciously understated as when Aleksandrs Antoninko didn’t grandstand during the famous “Nessun Dorma”? No, something’s different about this production. It’s the ending. They’ve changed it. When Puccini died in 1924, he left the opera incomplete. Two years later Franco Alfano penned a conclusion that, if you’re familiar with the opera, you’ve definitely heard it. Alfano was called in […]