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Puccini: Turandot
5054197406591 (Warner Classics, CD, 2 discs)
FIRST RELEASE (10 March 2023)
Playing time: 80'07"/44'56" - TT 125'03"
Tracks: 37 + 20
Booklet pages: 68
℗ 2023 Parlophone Records Ltd
© 2023 Parlophone Records Ltd
Main country of recording: Italy
Country of manufacture: Germany
Sent to a reviewer on 14 March 2023
Listen: Puccini: Nessun Dorma / Tu che guardi le stelle (Turandot Act III) (5054197406591 CD2 track 1, 2:45-2:52 / track 2, 0:00-0:37)
Sondra Radvanovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Ermonela Jaho, Michele Pertusi, Mattia Olivieri, Michael Spyres
Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Roma
Piero Monti, chorus master
Antonio Pappano, conductor
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924):
Turandot, dramma lirico in three acts and five scenes, in concert form, with libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, after the plat by Carlo Gozzi, in the first version of the opera, as originally completed by Franco Alfano after Puccini's death
CD1
Act I
1 Popolo di Pekino!
2 Indietro, cani!
3 Padre! Mio padre!
4 Gira la cote!
5 Perché tarda la luna?
6 Là, sui monti dell'est
7 O giovinetto! Grazia! Grazia!
8 La grazia! - O divina bellezza
9 Figlio, che fai?
10 Fermo! che fai?
11 Silenzio, olà!
12 Notte senza lumicino
13 Signore, ascolta!
14 Non piangere, Liù
15 Ah! per l'ultima volta!
Act II
16 Olà, Pang! Olà, Pong!
17 O Cina, che or sussulti
18 Ho una casa nell'Honan
19 O mondo, pieno di pazzi innamorati!
20 Addio, amore! Addio, razza!
21 Non v'è in Cina
22 Udite trombe! Altro che pace!
23 Gravi, enormi ed impotenti
24 Un giuramento atroce mi costringe
25 Diecimila anni al nostro Imperatore!
26 Popolo di Pekino!
27 In questa Reggia
28 O Principi, che a lunghe carovane
29 Straniero, ascolta!
30 Sì! Rinasce!
31 Guizza al pari di fiamma
32 Sì, Principessa!
33 Gelo che ti dà foco
34 La mia vittoria
35 Figlio del cielo!
36 No, no, Principessa, altera!
37 Ai tuoi piedi ci prostriam
CD2
Act III
1 Così comanda Turandot
2 Nessun dorma!
3 Tu che guardi le stelle
4 Straniero, tu non sai
5 Principessa divina!
6 Signor, non parlerò
7 Chi pose tanta forza nel tuo cuore?
8 Strappatele il segreto!
9 Tu, che di gel sei cinta
10 Liù ... Liù ... Sorgi!
11 Liù ... bontà! Liù ... dolcezza!
12 Principessa di morte!
13 Che è mai di me?
14 Mio fiore!
15 E li ho spregiati
16 Tormentata e divisa
17 Più grande vittoria non voler ...
18 Arbitra son del tuo destino
19 Diecimila anni al nostro Imperatore!
20 Padre Augusto
This star-studded recording of Turandot, Puccini's spectacular final opera, is set to be one of the biggest new studio recordings of the year, and potentially the last on this scale. It marks several important firsts. Before the recording sessions in Rome in February and March 2022, Antonio Pappano had never conducted the work - despite his reputation as a masterly interpreter of Puccini, with La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Il trittico and La rondine in his Warner Classics discography. Secondly, both Sondra Radvanovsky, the soprano in the soaring title role, and Jonas Kaufmann as her fearless suitor, Calaf, had not previously performed the opera. Finally, although the catalogue features a number of famous studio recordings of Turandot, none included the crucial final scene of the opera as completed after Puccini's death in 1925 by the younger composer Franco Alfano. This was particularly important to Pappano, who argues that 'The melting of the "ice princess" Turandot is somewhat more gradual and therefore better explained in this original version. I think Alfano had caught on to the more Germanic concept of opera characters undergoing a cleansing, by means of a psychological working-through of what has troubled them, so that they can be released from their demons'. The success of the project was confirmed by a public concert performance at Rome's Auditorium Parco della Musica, greeted with a standing ovation. The album is released on the same day Pappano begins his run conducting Turandot at London's Royal Opera House, running until 13 April 2023.
Recorded 28 February-8 March 2022 at the Parco della Musica, Rome, Italy.