Ice dream: Puccini's Turandot re-imagined

By Matthew Rye, 10 December 2015

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“The real vocal treat of this performance was the Liù of Romanian soprano Brigitte Kele”

Reviewed at Theater Duisburg, Duisburg on 9 December 2015

Puccini, Turandot

Deutsche Oper am Rhein

Axel Kober, Conductor

Huan-Hsiung Li, Director

Jo-Shan Liang, Set Designer

Hsuan-Wu Lai, Costume Designer

Linda Watson, Turandot

Zoran Todorovich, Calaf

Brigitta Kele, Liù

Sami Luttinen, Timur

Bruce Rankin, Emperor Altoum

Bogdan Baciu, Ping

Florian Simson, Pang

Cornel Frey, Pong

Daniel Djambazian, Mandarin

Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein

Kinderchor am Rhein

Duisburger Philharmoniker

Yi-An Chen, Dancer

Wen-pin Chien, Conductor

Reality wants augmenting in Daniel Kramer's Die tote Stadt

Eleanor Knight, 16th April

What's a director to do while we wait for technology to catch up with the complexities of the human condition?

***11

Duisburg’s Don Carlos rescued from a devastating deluge

Brian Angus, 17th May

What do you do when 80 tonnes of water flood your theatre, your sets and costumes? Rescue, reshape and present what you can. That’s what Deutsche Oper am Rhein have had to do in Duisburg.

***11

All the world's a stage: Xerxes as a comedy of backstage rivalry

Matthew Rye, 17th January

A revival of Stefan Herheim's production of Handel's Xerxes in Düsseldorf makes for a rip-roaring evening of theatrical comedy.

****1

Stars and the score shine in The Count of Luxembourg

Ilana Walder-Biesanz, 25th December

Baritone Kay Stiefermann steals hearts at the eponymous Count of Luxembourg, in an operetta so charming that neither musical missteps nor a mixed-up staging can sink it.

***11

Between two worlds: Wozzeck in Düsseldorf

Matthew Rye, 20th October

Stefan Herheim's eagerly awaited production of Berg's Wozzeck distances us from the emotional heart of the tragedy by portraying the story as a hallucinatory death-room experience.

****1

Die Zauberflöte in Düsseldorf

Edward Sava-Segal, 27th May

Animated characters are the real stars of an imaginative production of The Magic Flute.

****1

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).

Ice dream: Puccini's Turandot re-imagined at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein