Puccini - Turandot

ONP Bastille, Monday December 13 2021  

Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel. Production: Robert Wilson, Nicola Panzer. Sets: Robert Wilson, Stephanie Engeln. Costumes: Jacques Reynaud. Lighting: Robert Wilson, John Torres. Turandot: Elena Pankratova. Liù: Guanqun Yu. Calaf: Gwyn Hughes Jones. Timur: Vitalij Kowaljow. Altoum: Carlo Bosi. Ping: Alessio Arduini. Pang: Jinxu Xiahou. Pong: Matthew Newlin. Mandarin: Bogdan Talos. Paris Opera Orchestra and Choruses. Maîtrise des Hauts-de-Seine/Paris Opera Children Chorus.

After all these years of opera-going, I still don't trust my ears and eyes, and find myself wondering 'Is it just me?' Last night's Turandot at the Bastille had me puzzled and, to some extent, worried.

First of all, who chose the cast? Whose idea was it to ask these singers to sing these roles in this theatre and in a Wilson production? Not once did their singing come across as striking or seductive, let alone thrilling. Don't get me wrong: nobody was downright bad. Calaf, for example, never cracked or sang a wrong note. But he and even Turandot were underpowered for the venue and, as a result, stretched, and - I guess to cope as best she could with the gaping void of the Bastille - Liù's performance was, as my neighbour put it, 'Pas subtil.' The long silence after 'Signor, Ascolta', unbroken by applause, was embarrassing. By the end I was sincerely wondering what they might all sound like in the same work in a more modestly-sized venue, or in other houses in less punishing repertoire.

I almost felt sorry for Gwyn Hughes Jones, supposing he must be wondering what he'd got himself into, while possibly damaging his voice. Yet, looking him up today, I was, I admit, surprised to read that, having sung Otello at Grange Park and now made his debut as Calaf, he's planning to sing Tristan! Oh well, I know nothing of these things, but I should have thought he was better off singing Rodolfo and, perhaps, Don José. Last night I actually thought maybe 'Werther', but didn't see it in his rep. I thought possibly Lady Macbeth for Pankratova, but didn't see that in hers either.

Puccini

And Dudamel. Is his approach so wonderfully new and fresh and different I'm too stale and staid to grasp it? I was totally bewildered. It sounded to me like an early rehearsal reading, a series of unrelated episodes, sometimes very fast and loud, as if he were still leading his youth orchestra in Ginastera dances; but then with serious 'chutes de tension' - to the point of becoming soporific. I got no feeling there was an overall vision holding the score together.

And I sometimes also got the impression the pit wasn't properly connected to the stage: without any prompting on my part, my neighbour remarked 'Il faudrait quand même qu'il se rende compte un jour qu'il a quand même' (yes, two of those) 'des chanteurs devant lui qui ont besoin de son aide.'*

There were, however, some very nice, smoochie 'film music' moments.

I'll stick my neck out: it seemed to me that Dudamel fell into nearly every trap of this minefield of a score and succeeded most of all in highlighting its most tedious features. The orchestra loves him, we all know that's partly why he got the job. At the end you could hear them drumming their feet and, when he was up on stage, see them standing in the pit clapping. I wonder what's behind all this admiration. Is he perhaps less demanding than Jordan, less of a disciplinarian? More fun? Their playing wasn't so great last night, and the chorus only seemed to wake up at the end, though it's true Wilson often had them well to the rear. This is why I said, above, I was to some extent worried. If he conducts in Paris often, is this the kind of performance we're in for?

I like Robert Wilson, but despite what many people are saying this isn't, in my experience, one of his best productions. It's too static, too symmetrical and too repetitive. He's perfectly capable of directing action and telling a tale, in a stylised, cartoon-like way (or on other occasions like a silent film: think Dreigroschenoper) with a great deal of good-humoured charm, but there was little of that here. Calaf especially would have benefited from having more to do than just spread his arms and pace back and forth. As it was, behind his white make-up and trussed up unflatteringly in his tunic, he just looked lost. Wilson can also be very funny, but here Ping, Pang and Pong's capers soon became, as I just said, tiresomely repetitive.

What's still there, now Wilson's 80, is the impeccable design and execution of the visuals, resulting, therefore, in a kind of 'Zen Zeffirelli' production. As always with him - providing the theatre's technicians are up to it - there were some magnificent tableaux, beautifully lit, mostly in shades of blue, but with Turandot picked out in luminous red. They, not the music, were the striking, seductive and thrilling features of the evening.

Photo: Charles Duprat/ONP

In this YouTube clip, Maestro Wenarto performs 'In questa reggia', but not in Robert Wilson's production:

*One day, even so, he will have to realise he nevertheless has singers in front of him who need his help.