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Franco Zeffirelli’s magnificent staging of Puccini's final opera — a fairy tale set in a mythical China — is one of the most popular in the Met repertory. In this Live in HD production, Maria Guleghina takes on the title role and Marcello Giordani is Calaf, the unknown prince. Marina Poplavskaya and Samuel Ramey co-star, and Andris Nelsons conducts in his Met debut. English, German, French & Spanish subtitles “Zeffirelli's classic 1990s Met production, unashamedly glitzy, crowded and spectacular comes up remarkably fresh in this second video incarnation...Guleghina's ice-princess is intensely feminine...Giordano cuts a charismatic stage figure, and 'Nessun dorma' stops the show...What really makes this production is the vividness with which it's communicated, both in the exceptional high-definition picture and spacious sound.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 ***** “Zeffirelli's ultra-lavish traditional production hovers between gorgeously extravagant and amusingly overdone. It's kept in check by three terrific performers in the main roles. Maria Guleghina soars effortlessly through the cruelly demanding title role...Poplavskaya is wonderfully affecting both dramatically and vocally as the innocent young Liu...[Nelsons] provides some surprising subtlety among the necessary broad brush-strokes.” Classic FM Magazine, October 2011 **** “the production's brain-flooding panorama of ancient China...matches the sumptuousness of Puccini's score...[Guleghina and Giordani are] both fairly new to their roles and singing them with a sense of new discovery...In the secondary roles, Marina Poplavskaya and Samuel Ramey are certainly A-team talents...Nelsons finds layers of sound and meaning unlike anything I've heard since Karajan's audio recording on DG” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2011 “the 22-year-old extravaganza has lost none of its razzle-dazzle...in the opera house one can't take it all in...Perhaps home viewing is the best route - when soloists sing, the camera hones in on them...The stars of the evening are conductor and second soprano...[Poplavskaya] acts convincingly, looks wonderful and sings with great warmth and sure technique..,[Nelsons] rises to each occasion, but he also pays heed to Puccini's delicate colorations” International Record Review, November 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Salzburger Festspiele, 2002
Set Design by Johan Engels Costume Design by Marie-Jeanne Lecca Puccini’s last opera “Turandot” stands out from the rest of his works. In the fairytale based upon Gozzi’s motif, the composer blends exoticism with psychology in a way that can not be imitated when telling the story of the men-hating Chinese princess who eventually finds love. In his music, Puccini also succeeds in merging foreign fl air with Italian melodramma while still staying tuned to his own unique musical language. In his production for the Salzburger Festspiele, David Pountney tries to give an account of the dominant feeling in Puccini’s time: the fear of being alienated by mechanisation and totalitarianism. Both Turandot’s salvation and the happiness in the closing scene are also refl ected in the release of the other characters from the system in which they had to live. This gives rise to a new hope of a humane society. The opera is staged using Luciano Berio’s completion of Act III. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is masterly conducted by Valery Gergiev. Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Picture Format: 16:9 Running Time: 125 mins & 16 mins (Bonus) FSK: 12 Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES, IT, CN “At last, a concept that is more than a clever idea...[Pountney's] Turandot here at the Salzburg [sic] abandons its customary Chinoiserie taking its visual cue from Fritz Lang's movie Metropolis, with a touch of Tim Burton and Edward Scissorhands...In this reading of the work it helps immeasurably that Pountney and Gergiev have jettisoned both Franco Alfano's long and short endings” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 ** “Pountney employs imagery of huge grinding cogs (drawn from, inter alia, Fritz Lang's film Metropolis) to show a brutal mechanized society being thawed by love. Gabriele Schnaut displays unflagging power as Turandot and Johan Botha (though hampered somewhat by his size) is equally thrilling.” Classic FM Magazine, April 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Recorded in Naples in 1962 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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Maria Guleghina (Turandot), Marco Berti (Calaf), Alexia Voulgaridou (Liù), Alexander Tsymbalyuk (Timur), Javier Agulló (Altoum), Fabio Previati (Ping), Vincenç Esteve (Pang), Roger Padullés (Pong), Ventseslav Anastasov (Un mandarino) Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Zubin Mehta Stage / Video Director - Chen Kaige This 2008 production is staged by Chen Kaige, the film director of Farewell My Concubine and winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival. Shot in full HD, including Bonus material behind the scenes. Maria Guleghina is one of the most celebrated and acclaimed sopranos of the world. The leading international tenor Marco Berti is recognised as one of the most important artists from Italy. from Valencia's spectacular Calatrava opera house "Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía", 2008, with its phenomenal acoustics and breathtaking architecture. Includes the aria Nessun dorma. Bonus - Making of Turandot (36 min.) “Turandot has always been one of Zubin Mehta's calling cards, and he rarely disappoints here in Valencia. The sweep of this great score is admirably balanced by a proper attention to orchestral and instrumental detail.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 **** “Drawing on his intimate knowledge of traditional Chinese theatre and spectacle, Chen and his designers, Liu King and Chen Tong Xun, give us a Turandot in extravagant colours and choreography, true to the spirit of fable and legend… Maria Guleghina must surely not be the Turandot of our time. The role seems to hold no terrors for her... Zubin Mehta's...direction of the Valenciana Orchestra brims with drama and affection.” Gramophone Magazine, March 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Lucille Udovich and Franco Corelli star in this RAI performance recorded live on 13th December 1958. Conducted by Fernando Previtali. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | 1957 Recording
Puccini’s Turandot, first performed in 1926, was the only work in which Callas sang that was younger than herself and is a perfect vehicle for a dramatic soprano with a steady, steely and brilliant voice capable of rising to top C. Although she had last sung the strenuously demanding title rôle on stage in 1949, her subtlety in is apparent in this dramatically and musically effective 1957 recording. Schwarzkopf (Liu) and Fernandi (Calaf) perfectly complement Callas as the legendary Chinese princess whose icy heart is melted by the power of love. "Callas had not performed the role of the formidable princess for eight years, but her first entrance in ‘In questa reggia’ is commanding… the taxing high tessitura seems to pose her relatively few problems…Not a role that was central to Callas’s repertoire but a good example of her ability to breathe new life into an old warhorse.” MusicWeb International on a previous issue “With Callas, the character seems so much more believably complex than with others, and this 1957 recording is one of her most thrillingly magnetic performances on disc. Schwarzkopf provides a comparably characterful and distinctive portrait as Liu...Serafin's masterly conducting exactly matches the characterfulness of Callas and Schwarzkopf” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition *** | | | (also available to download from $16.25) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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Ghena Dimitrova (Turandot), Nicola Martinucci (Calaf), Cecilia Gasdia (Liù), Graziano Polidori (Ping), Pier Francesco Poli (Pang), Antonio Bevacqua (Pong), Ferruccio Furlanetto (Timur), Giampaolo Corradi (L'imperatore Altoum), Orazio Mori (Un mandarino) Orchestra and Chorus of Arena di Verona, Maurizio Arena From the world-famous Arena of Verona, an international cast perform one of Puccini's best loved operas. The cruel Princess Turandot, ruler of China, will only wed a prince who can answer correctly her three riddles. Those who fail are executed. Prince Calaf, son of the exiled king of Tartary, falls in love with Turandot as soon as he sets eyes on her, and despite the protestations of his friends and family sets out to pass her test. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording 1961
They made a distinctly odd couple onstage: she was the supreme hochdramatisch soprano of her generation, a singer able to maintain her tremendous vocal powers over a period of several decades, whereas he could captivate his listeners as a poetic and spirited lyric tenor so prodigal with his resources that within little more than a decade he had burned out. It was in 1961 that Birgit Nilsson appeared alongside Giuseppe di Stefano in a performance of Puccini's Turandot which, caught on the wing by by the microphones of Austrian Radio, manages not to be simply a duel between two vocal gymnasts anxious to display their top notes. As Calaf, Giuseppe di Stefano, who died on 3rd March at the age of 86, genuinely gives the impression that he is able to melt the Ice Princess with his mellifluous tenor and ingratiating timbre. Especially towards the end of her killer role, Nilsson shows that she has at her disposal the soft notes and subtle nuances needed to effect this change to a sense of greater humanity. This exceptional cast is completed by Leontyne Price as Liù. Rarely in the history of opera before or since have three such distinguished singers appeared together onstage. This new production of Turandot was conducted by Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, at that time one of the most sought-after conductors of the Italian repertory. “It's not so hard to think oneself present, especially when the recording is as vivid as this and the performance so compelling. It was a special night in Vienna. Karl Löbl wrote it up (and partly down) for his paper at the time, and now, contributing the notes for this issue, says of his generation that they didn't know how lucky they were. He is clearly convinced that, whatever the shortcomings then, they were great times compared with the pallid present.
And it's true we have no Birgit Nilsson now.
She is in magnificent form here. Though she is singing much of the time from some way back on stage, the sound is still immensely powerful, and when she does come down front for the final duet we mentally take a step or two back. Much of the special interest, however, lies with the Calaf and the Liù. Di Stefano wins through by the conviction of all he sings: blazing, for instance, in the enigmas. Leontyne Price, too, brings unusual intensity to her role. Vibrant and warm in tone, she shades her phrases sensitively, disappointing only in that she does not resist the temptation to make an effect by investing the B flat of “Signore, ascolta” with a crescendo. The others – the aged Emperor, the deposed King and the three quaint Ministers – are strongly cast, and the chorus make a grand contribution.
Molinari-Pradelli conducts with more character than in the famous studio set, and the recording picks out details of orchestration we may well have missed in other, technically better balanced, versions.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Birgit Nilsson… is in magnificent form here. Though she is singing much of the time from some way back on stage, the sound is still immensely powerful, and when she does come down front for the final duet we mentally take a step or two back. Di Stefano wins through by the conviction of all he sings: blazing, for instance, in the enigmas. Leontyne Price, too, brings unusual intensity to her role. Molinari-Pradelli conducts with more character than in the famous studio set...” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2008 | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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Recorded in 1956 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Sung in Italian. Recorded at the San Francisco Opera in 1994
Eva Marton, Michael Sylvester, Lucia Mazzaria, Kevin Langan, Theodore Baerg, Dennis Peterson, Craig Estep & Joseph Frank Chorus & Orchestra of the San Francicso Opera House, Donald Runnicles Recording Date: 1994
Place of recording: From the San Francisco Opernhaus
Running Time: 123 min
Picture Format: 4:3
Sound Format: PCM Stereo
Menu Languages NTSC: D, F, GB, SP
“The orchestral and choral forces are very well harnessed by Donald Runnicles, who fires on all cylinders and visually the designs by David Hockney are vivid and bold...although there are more subtle Turandots to be found than Marton, the performance is thoroughly gripping.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition **/*** “A brilliant fantasy of redemption... The visual splendours fuse with Puccini’s score, his most advanced harmonically and his most opulently orchestrated” San Francisco Chronicle | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Gramophone Magazine
