But I'll save one word for you

[sovay]

Well, that was a shock . . .


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This has been a good weekend. Friday morning and several hours this afternoon I spent with my good friend Peter Gould, one of the most incredible people ever to walk the face of the earth. Last night went toward the Met's production of Puccini's Turandot, where Krassimira Stoyanova as Liù blew the top of my head off (metaphorically; she wasn't quite that loud). And in defiance of Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazousai, thank you very much, I still like Euripides.

On to what you like. Since I have not yet figured out how to set up livejournal polls, is there something of which people would like to see more at this site? "Assyriology" and "Silly Quizzes" are perfectly acceptable answers . . .

Comments

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

...continued, because I apparently exceeded the character limit for a comment:


Liù is another really interesting one -- for a while my automatic reaction was "Agh, another beatific supporting character who duly sacrifices herself to the plot so that the main characters can fulfill their ambitions; why couldn't Puccini have written someone more interesting?" Then I listened more carefully and realized she's plenty interesting -- what she's saying to Turandot is really essentially, "Yes, you're the future Empress of China, and the man I love loves you, and I'm going to die for his sake and you're going to live and be happy with him. But right now I'm delivering you to him as a gift-wrapped birthday present, and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it." Whew. There are few characters so obliging and helpful that you so sincerely would NOT want to mess with.

I would be very interested to see a production where Liù and Turandot are portrayed as being essentially the same age -- as you said, somewhere between sixteen and eighteen. In the recordings I've heard, Turandot has come across to me as older, though who knows what the associated productions intended.

[sovay]

You would have liked this Liù, I think: she had the steel-under-sweetness that you describe, and the sheer command of voice to make you believe everything she said. Her "Signore, ascolta" was breath-stopping. (I would have liked her suicide to be a little less stylized, but in general I've found stage direction at the Met to err on the side of the ornamental.) I find it interesting that the alternate portrayal of love that she offers to Turandot is still bound up with death and dying—though that's a connection so ancient, I can hardly argue; and self-sacrifice for love is almost as familiar a theme—but not with a loss of self beyond the physical fact of living. She doesn't stop being Liù because she loves Calàf. If anything, in the moment when she makes this rather damn scary gift to Turandot, she is most herself.

I would be very interested to see a production where Liù and Turandot are portrayed as being essentially the same age
Definitely. They would make much more effective foils for one another that way.

I wonder what the vocal requirements for the roles are; is there something in the range or tessitura that necessitates a heavier voice for Turandot, and thus an older sound? (I didn't immediately think so when I saw the opera. The woman I saw as Liù could certainly have sung Turandot.)

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

I also found Liù's behavior more understandable when I realized she's acknowledging that Calaf, her love for whom is so central to who she is, is now totally out of her reach whether she wins or loses. That sort of certainty would seem to make drastic gestures easier, particularly at that sort of age.

The Turandots I've heard have all come across as spending much more time wandering around the stratosphere than Liù does, though pitchwise they may be similar. I'm not overly familiar with how to describe voices, but I've always heard Turandot played in a way I found sort of high and thin, though in technical fact neither of these may have been true. I've always been someone annoyed with this, since I think she should sound as attractive as she looks and as interesting a person as Liù, or the sort lacks some intuitive sense -- she always sounds to me royal and slightly hysterically frigid. I always assumed this was just a conceptual disagreement between me and Puccini, but maybe there are other ways to do it.

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

That should be "whether he wins or loses".

[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

And "or the story lacks some intuitive sense". *sigh*

[sovay]

This Turandot had (as you may guess from my above comments) a heavier, much more edged voice than Liù, who was sort of a tensile, sinewy shimmer. Part of my original complaint . . .

(Is okay. It's getting late.)