A Turandot without a happy ending

By Lorenzo Fiorito, 28 March 2015

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“The idea of dressing the chorus as a terracotta army was inspired”

Reviewed at Teatro di San Carlo, Naples on 27 March 2015

Puccini, Turandot (2015 Mar 21,22 18:00,26 18:00,27 19:00,28,29 17:00,31,Apr 1 19:00)

Teatro di San Carlo

Juraj Valčuha, Conductor

Roberto de Simone, Director

Nicola Rubertelli, Set Designer

Odette Nicoletti, Costume Designer

Carmen Giannattasio, Liù

Eleonora Buratto, Liù

Jennifer Wilson, Turandot

Elena Pankratova, Turandot

Dario di Vietri, Calaf

Carlo Ventre, Calaf

Riccardo Zanellato, Timur

Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo

Coro del Teatro di San Carlo

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Gianni Amelio's 2021 production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro di San Carlo serves the music, but it no longer commands the same sense of discovery.

***11

Laurent Pelly’s Falstaff passes the Naples test with flying colours

Lorenzo Fiorito, 15th February

The French director’s much-travelled production arrives at the Teatro di San Carlo, displaying a precise balance between word, gesture and voice.

*****

Ludovic Tézier delivers a noble Nabucco in Naples

Lorenzo Fiorito, 18th January

Andreas Homoki’s staging at the Teatro di San Carlo, setting aside a few inconsistencies with the libretto, does not indulge in redundant symbolism.

***11

Ennio Morricone’s only opera, Partenope, finally premiered in Naples

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***11

San Carlo’s Medea a clash of worlds in a neoclassical framework

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***11

Vocal triumph in Un ballo in maschera at the Teatro di San Carlo

Lorenzo Fiorito, 11th October

Faithful to the libretto’s dramaturgy, the staging unfolds in scenographic environments of strong impact -

****1

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Lorenzo Fiorito

Lorenzo Fiorito holds degrees in Humanities and in Languages and Literatures, and a Phd in Languages for Special Purposes. He is a lecturer in historical musicological subjects at the Pegaso University, Naples, the Universitas Mercatorum, Rome and MEDEA Higher Education Institution, Malta, currently researching musicology as a special language. He is a member of the National Music Critics Association and of the Italian Society of Musicology. He edited a series of volumes in Musicology and History of Music for the publisher Diana Edizioni, mainly concerning the Neapolitan School of Music of the 18th century, and is the founder and artistic director of the “Francesco Durante Festival” in Frattamaggiore.