At the end of Savonlinna Opera Festival’s Turandot, a giant scroll is unfurled bearing the Chinese characters spelling out “The Eternal Enigma”. Turandot famously poses three riddles to each of her suitors, but there are more than three to unpack in Pet Halmen’s 2003 production, revived by Roman Hovenbitzer. Who are Timur and Liù? Why is Calaf dressed in white naval uniform as Pinkerton from Madama Butterfly? And why are the chorus given a Cultural Revolution makeover in a production seemingly set in the 1920s?
I figured out the first one. In the opera’s opening bars, Giacomo Puccini is dying, struggling to complete his opera Turandot. A trio of servants-turned-surgeons beat and blind him, until a maid comes to his aid. Puccini takes on the mantle of Timur, the maid becoming his faithful slave, Liù. Other directors have pursued this concept, notably Marco Arturo Marelli for the Bregenz Festival, adapted for Vienna, where Puccini is Calaf.
Having Timur and Liù as master and maid perhaps also references the 1908 case of Doria Manfredi, a maid who was falsely accused – by Elvira Puccini – of having an affair with the composer and who took her own life. When Liù kills herself – stabbed with a brooch handily planted into the stage by Turandot – Timur also dies, at the very point in the score Puccini had reached when he died in 1924. Puccini’s death mask is placed across Timur’s face. It’s a clever concept which doesn’t disturb the story too much.
Calaf as Pinkerton? Perhaps the callous lieutenant isn’t too far removed from the arrogant prince and both are “sons of Puccini” in terms of being his creative offspring. The servant-torturers become the court ministers Ping, Pang and Pong, here cane-twirling Chaplinesque manipulators with a taste for the grotesque, juggling golden deities and stuffing bits of manuscript paper into Liù’s mouth.
But the chorus as blue-faced, blue-suited proletariat waving musical manuscript paper? Beats me. The courtiers enter in red uniforms, so perhaps society is colour-coded. Nevertheless, the Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir sang like troopers, making a tremendous sound. (I’m now gutted to be missing them in Boris Godunov next week.)
Halmen’s production bears more than a nod towards fellow Romanian Andrei Șerban’s for The Royal Opera: giant masks of Turandot’s failed suitors weep blood; the Emperor Altoum is seated in a cloud; and the set has the chorus as spectators, here filed along what appears to be the roof of a Chinese palace. The stage at Savonlinna is exceptionally wide, but has very little depth, restricting movement. Here, a central dais serves as a mini-stage and point of entry and exit.
The cast assembled for this revival gave committed performances. Polish-American soprano Ewa Płonka added vocal glamour in the title role and plenty of steel. “In questa reggia” made a powerful impact, although she held onto the high B on “grido” for an indecent amount of time and the cackle when Turandot thinks she’s got Calaf bamboozled with the third riddle was a bit pantomime.
French-Tunisian tenor Amadi Lagha was a cocksure Calaf, hugging Liù and giving Timur a slap on the back on solving the second riddle. He’s a good, honest tenor, quite dry and a little bruising, although that fits the character. “Nessun dorma”, no more than adequately sung, drew the inevitable ovation.
Matti Turunen was a cavernous Timur, Tuuli Takala a warm-voiced Liù; her “Signore ascolta” was beautifully shaped, although conductor Yves Abel seemed to want to go at a different tempo. Veikko Vallinoja was a firm-voiced (baritone) Altoum and Waltteri Torikka, Einar Dagur Jónsson and Aljaž Žgavc formed an effective comedy-grotesque Ping–Pang–Pong trio, with a lot of stage business to manage. Confined to a lofty perch, Riku Pelo’s Mandarin was imposingly sung.
Abel directed his huge forces – both in the pit and on stage – capably, despite a few moments of miscoordination. The brass of the Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra, in particular, had a field day and the lusty choral reprise of “Nessun dorma” nearly brought the house (castle) down.
Mark’s press trip was funded by the Savonlinna Opera Festival
