Sunday 8 November 2009

1823 Turandot and two Christmas films

My third live HD performance from the New York Metropolitan Opera House was Turandot which I have always pronounced and Turando but it is dot and which means I did not listen to the as intently as I should to my Deutsche Grammophon Herbert Von Karajan recording with Placido Domingo as Calaf and Katia Riccardelli as Turandot.

On my first visit to a performance at the Tyneside Film Theatre I used the Hewath long stay car park, returning to find there were two cars left in the isolated and darkened area with the attendant long since departed. Tonight I chose the short stay park in front of the Metro and bus station and where there is also a taxi rank. There is a maximum stay of four hours during the payment period so that by arriving after 4pm one pays £1.70 and this takes you past the time when charges are made. The cost is about the same as the all day charge for the long stay park. I had prepared a salad which I eat most after which I had a banana. I had only eaten a piece of fish for lunch and a cereal breakfast determined to continue to reduce weight having achieve 16.7 which means I have lost a full stone since letting the it get out of hand again. This time there will be no return and I will not be content until another stone has been removed.

Arriving in the city centre around 5.30 I assumed there was time to take a quick look at suits at the British Homes store and indeed after a brisk walk through Fenwicks noting that the Christmas window display was being watched by the usual large crowd and I checked that while there are suits with 44in waists there were only 31 inch trousers and not the 29 I need and a brisk return the clock was only striking 5.45 as I joined a large queue entering the classic cinema stalls. On entering the auditorium I discovered there were only seats left in the first three rows and that every seat had been booked. making the total audience 200 as evidently by word of mouth the good news has spread. On leaving I had a conversation with a woman who said that she and her husband and attempted to gain tickets on Friday and they had been offered the last one. From next until December 11th remains Operas can be booked for a package price from £85 to £110 and then open to the general public. I would not be surprised if the demand continues to accelerate. To mark the development the Cinema provided a programme which was quickly snapped up.

Turandot is not a great opera although it does contain Nessum Dorma although the third act provides the opportunity for some brilliant singing and where the three main performers were exceptional. The settings were also on the scale of Aida.

The story is a simple one with no complications. Prince Calaf and his father who is accompanied by a devoted slave girl are on the run in China. The son meets up with his vanquished father who he has not seen for many years in the city of Peking just as the 12th suitor for the hand of the Princess is to be executed for failing to answer all her three riddles. The penalty for failure to be drawn and quartered and after your head after being severed from the body to be stuck on a pole outside the palace as a warning to other suitors. The Princess is a powerful woman who has no intention of yielding her will or body to a man. The prince is impressed by the devotion of the slave girl played by Marina Popavskaya whose performance was the outstanding one the night although it has come in for some criticism from Lisa Lindstrom. She came to fame in London in 2007 when she took over a role in Don Carlos after Angela Gheorghiu decided was not for her.

A Russian born performer until 2005 Marina has the looks and figure to play young women who can drive any man into passionate madness, as well as the kind of voice I prefer, full of subtlety and sincerity rather than range and power. She was totally convincing as the slave girl who had stayed with the deposed king in the hope she would one day come across his son the only love of her life, a love which she knew was hopeless.

When interviewed by the Evening Standard Marina was very revealing stating that although her mother was a trained chemist with five specialist diplomas she worked as a Taxi driver because it paid more and despite her daughters own new wealth and married to a man forty years her senior with three step sons older than her, and seven step grand children, her mother insisted on earning her own keep. Marina was said have refused to speak of her father or of the Russian billionaires and was spending her time between London and the USA which she now regards as home.

The Calaf is played by the large Marcello Giordani who I saw as the ruthless and despicable Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly in March and again on the Met I player within the past two weeks. This time his role is that of teh crass insensitive and foolhardy Prince who despite knowing that she has callously sentenced 12 predecessors to horrible death, falls in love with Turandot on seeing her at a distance and being able to detect that her perfume fills the night. I could not help thinking that the stench of her blood spilling would have made any honourable young man nauseous. Despite a great performance of Nesum Dorma which brought the house down, but a long way short of Pavarotti of course.

Maria Guleghina played Turandot. She is also Russian born and internationally regarded as one of the great contemporary soprano’s with 130 performances at the Met already to her name and has played all the major female roles for soprano’s around the world. She was brilliant as the bitch from hell prepared to slaughter everyone in the city rather than be forced by her father to give herself to any man let alone the out of town stranger without an entourage or the apparent means to keep her in the lifestyle of someone self proclaimed as no ordinary woman.

The first act also introduces us to Ping, Pang and Pong, something which it was possible to get away with in 1926 when Puccini created this his last operatic work. These are the three trusted servants of the Palace who are usually responsible for the funeral of the rest of the remains of beheaded suitors but who also have plans for a wedding should an individual be successful. They provide humorous interludes between the high drama.

The second Act concentrates on the decision of the Calaf to sound the gong three times to announce his intention to the Princess and the rest of the city to meet the challenge of the three riddles. There are great efforts on the part of the slave girl, his father and Ping, Pang and Pong to dissuade him from attempting the challenge but as is Puccini’s wont, passion always overcomes reason and brings havoc and causing the life of at least one young innocent and good woman.

In fairness to Turandot she was not necessarily born the way she has become but somewhere along in her education, and there is no reference about what age she lost her mother, she learnt than one of her ancestors and been abducted and then killed after he had had his way by a conquering Prince. There is also an element that all woman want a man who will in fact conquer and tame them, a sentiment which Shakespeare also exposed in the Taming of the Shrew and which is frequently the defence of the rapist, she was asking for it or she really meant yes when she was crying out no.

Calaf having worked out the answer to the third riddle Turandot appeals to her father and then to Calaf not to hold her to the marriage, and Calaf also typical for his character is not content just to have her but wants her to submit willingly and gives her the challenge to find out his name and which if she does before dawn he will free her by giving up his life as had the previous suitors. Big Mistake.

The third act deals with the repercussions of this folly. The city is ordered not to sleep and the King‘s men ravage the city in search of clues as to the name of the suitor. Understandably rather than be massacred the citizens draw attention that the suitor was seen in the company with a man and his slave girl and they are apprehended.

Meanwhile Calaf is made offers which most sane men would not refuse. He can have as many young women to be his marital slaves as he wishes, he can have untold riches and he can have power in being given a kingdom to rule all if he flees the city and abandon his hold over Turandot, and in which instance she will stop her reign of terror. After capture the slave girl pretends that while she knows the name her employer does not, thus saving the life of her master. She also fears she will reveals the name under torture and stalls in order to be able to seize a knife to kill herself. This appears to have some effect on Turandot and after we the audience recover from the singing finale of the slave girl there are dramatic and moving exchanges between the Calaf and Turandot in which she eventually succumbs after he forces on her a kiss. I have to say this was the approach of the son good for nothing son of Burl Ives in the Big Country after he had abducted Jean Simmons in order to make her his wife and thus gain control of the Big Muddy. The Opera ends in a grand finale chorus which reminds of One fine day and the couple appear to prepare to be married, to rule together and to live happy ever after while the body of the slave girl, still warm is carried off with the old king holding her hand.

However having listen to the second CD of the Placido Domingo version while writing this, playing Luxor Majong and attending to my feet after soaking them in hot water, I realise that the words and attack on the construction and morality of the story has to be put aside when listening to the Puccini at the height of his creativity and the singing, such glorious singing which led the audience in the cinema to break out in applause along with the Met audience at every opportunity. In the interval I felt in need of a coffee and went downstairs to the street bar where I had a chat with one of the young male assistants who was most interested to hear about what was happening at the theatre and had attracted such a large audience. I also learnt from the programme that at the Tyneside bar which is upstairs between the two upper cinemas shows the interval programmes on screen and is something I must explore in the future especially if they also provide coffee. It was a good cup of Americano. I finished off the salad in the car before going home where I rounded of the evening with a ready made sausage mash and onion and a Christmas film I thought I was to see at midday.

The European lottery of £90 million was won last night with both tickets having been issued in England/ By this morning no one had come forward and then someone had, but another is yet to be confirmed. I checked and double checked my on line numbers and the ticket bought at the supermarket but alas I was not close. Drat Drat and more drat. What I could do with £45 million.

Film 24plusfree channel i.e. within the Sky entertainment subscription ,is showing back to back Christmas films with this afternoon and evening Chasing Christmas and The Christmas Card followed by 12 days of Christmas Eve and A boyfriend for Christmas for Christmas both films viewed yesterday.
The 12 days is a take on Groundhog Day, the film in which the same day is repeated without change until the hero finds the key to move on. In teh twelve days Calvin Carter (played by Steven Weber) is a successful business executive who has it all, but neglects those closest to him. On Christmas Eve, all that changes when the sign on his office building falls on him. He awakens in a hospital bed, attended by Angie (played by Molly Shannon), an angel in the guise of a nurse, who informs him that he has twelve days—that is, twelve chances—to get his act together and achieve the "perfect" Christmas Eve, or there will be dire consequences. The film does take account of the song the Twelve days of Christmas and has elements of a Christmas Carol and surprise surprise he does manage to work out that grand financial gestures especially those of a public kind get him back on the ward and that the solution is to be kind without having other motivation and spend quality time with his family.

A boyfriend at Christmas is three stories into one. A man has spent his whole life creating a year long theme park about Christmas which falls on hard times, especially after his wife who handled teh finances dies and as a consequence he is unable to communicate in a meaningful way with his daughter who goes off to the big city and becomes a successful business woman with no time for Christmas home with dad until he has an accident. She returns to find the business in peril. Many year ago when I youngster she had an influential conversation with a young visitor about Ballet and the Nutcracker favourite for Christmas time. He is the only child of a wealthy couple who have little time for his direct care and he returns to the town where he had a memorable Christmas and where he makes crafted wooden dolls. The two re-meet up and with a common interest in the quality of life and maintaining the Christmas tradition they join forces to try and save the theme park turning to a visitor who appears anxious to help. He is part of a syndicate who successfully take away property in financial difficulties and which has development potential. How they do this is main flaw in this Christmas tale. However a combination of brilliant money raising ideas and Christmas spirit the theme park is saved, the boyfriend becomes financially independent though his individually crafted toys, father and daughter are reconciled and she returns home to a new and better life and love. Oh if real life were so! For the two winners of the £45 million Christmas come early.

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