Puccini: Turandot (2CD)

As Puccini turned 60 in late 1918, he was increasingly coming to think of himself as a spent force, out of step with modern developments in music though his attention to them as a listener was prodigious, seeking out works by Strauss, Debussy and Schoenberg in his ceaseless international travels and still locked in marriage to the fearful Elvira. Turandot is perhaps the composer's last attempt to prove himself wrong, but the happy ending demanded by the plot was never to materialise. Psychologically and musically, Puccini lost interest with the now-ubiquitous, even anthemic aria Nessun dorma'. When Puccini died, on 29 November 1924 from heart failure following an operation for throat cancer, he had been working on Turandot for over four and a half years, ever since definitively abandoning the idea of setting Oliver Twist in the gloomy aftermath of the relatively subdued reception for Il trittico in 1918. When Toscanini premiered the work at La Scala in 1926, he famously laid down his baton after the obsequies for Liù: only at later performances did he reinstate the much-cut second completion of the score written by Franco Alfano (as heard on this recording). This performance is masterminded by the experienced Roberto Paternostro in the pit (or in this case on the podium of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw). The cast is headlined by some notable singers, young and old. The ice princess herself is the daughter of Giuseppe Patanè, one of the great conductors of this repertoire, who died tragically early in 1989. She has sung this role in over 400 performances. Calaf is sung by Wolfgang Schmidt, who was a favourite at Bayreuth for his ringing tenor during the 1990s, and his tone is distinctively put to use in Nessun dorma'. Then, in the crucial role of Calaf's father Timur, we have the great Bulgarian bass Nicola Ghiuselev (b.1936), with rolling tone and projection that is magnificently old-school.