Opera singers, Turandot

Turandot, Christmas week 2025, 4/4/87 performance on Met website with Domingo

Callas and Pavarotti, for all their renown, are almost too human. Callas sounds like a middle-aged lady. It was probably just the sound of the time -- perhaps they didn't know how to get that stuff out of the sound back then, so as far as they knew, she was angelic. Now, she's a full-throated dame. I heard Lise Davidsen do "Vissi d'arte" and Renee Fleming do "Signore, acolsta", both of which I intuitively enjoyed better than Callas' versions. For instance, Fleming's final couple of notes are pure tone, no throat, no gut, no speech. Callas is always grounded in her gut. I don't know how to describe these things, nor do I have much experience in what I'm talking about, but perhaps it just boils down to Callas being old-fashioned. I love her persona though.

As for Pavarotti... I haven't seen him in Turandot, but I doubt I'd like him as much as I liked Domingo. Domingo was the heroic tenor, in shape and size and style. Pavarotti can't play a warrior hero at his stature. Good Duke of Mantua though! at least as far as he was a regal glutton. Stature aside, I'm not sure I even like his voice (ostensibly the best ever) as much as Domingo's. They say Pavarotti is effortless, but that's what I'd say about Domingo's Calaf. Not only did he hit every note, the sound sprung out of him like a golden fountain. Pavarotti, like Callas, has too much guttural humanity in his sound. I mean maybe that's someone's taste, but I like voice as pure instrument. I like how Domingo just unleashed the sound. I like how gentle Davidsen was.

Turandot was the best opera I've seen lately, or ever. Grander and bolder than Tosca, more musical than Don Carlo, more beautiful than Carmen or Figaro, Turandot was the best synthesis of drama and melody I've seen. The sets were intense, the arias included two of my all-time favorites, the setting was epic-historical, and the musical themes stood out so much better than in that other epic-historical Don Carlo. Despite the 1987 date, Turandot was fresh and intense. Domingo was the right kind of tenor. Even without "Nessun dorma", the music soars. It's funny, I never would have expected a Chinese setting for "Nessun dorma". But I like how Puccini leans on the eastern pentatonic in Turandot's motif as well as "Signore, acolsta".

1. Turandot
2. Tosca
3. Carmen?
4. Don Carlo
5. Rigoletto