Arts & Entertainment A weekly guide to music, theater, art, movies and more, edited by Rebecca Wallace
Clockwise from left: Alexandra LoBianco gets fearsome as the princess Turandot; David Gustafson as Calaf and Liisa Dávila as Liù; Emmanuel Franco, Michael Mendelsohn and Michael Desnoyers play a trio of royal advisors.
Epic Puccini W e s t B ay O pe r a ta k e s on ‘ T u r a n d o t ’ by Mort Levine | photos by Veronica Weber
“A
n intimate opera on an epic scale” is the way West Bay Opera’s charismatic general director, José Luis Moscovich, characterizes the monumental Puccini creation “Turandot.” His company will tackle the opera for two weekends beginning Friday, Feb. 18, at Palo Alto’s Lucie Stern Theatre. This is the first time West Bay has presented “Turandot” in its 55 seasons. As with the other two operas in the season, “Turandot” is a company premiere. Now in his fifth year as the head of the Palo Alto-based company,
Moscovich has a significant challenge as conductor of the rich, diverse score. In composing, Puccini threw off the romantic and gritty verismo tradition of his earlier successes. Instead, he ventured into an exploration of writing that has elements of atonality, Chinese pentatonic themes, echoes of Wagner and Stravinsky, and even jazz riffs of the early 1920s, when the opera was written. Puccini died after composing all but the final scene, and the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini had it completed by composer Franco Alfano from sketches left by Puccini. (continued on page 28)
*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊ iLÀÕ>ÀÞÊ££]ÊÓ䣣ÊU Page 27