Turandot - 5 November
Our first Opera Outing and what a first it was! With over 100 theatregoers in the bustling and beautiful London Coliseum foyer I can’t deny that I was a little apprehensive! Would they enjoy it? Would our first Opera Outing be the first of many or the last? Opera guides in hand the seasoned opera goers and the opera virgins alike took their programmes and their seats and settled in for an evening not soon forgotten, the ENO’s Turandot.
Everyone has said the same, this production got us talking. Rupert Goold’s very modern re-inventing of Puccinni’s final opera includes Elvises, Marilyn Mansons, nuns, and I believe, a few members of the Village people! Set in a Chinese resturant a writer (Rupert Goold’s own addition to this opera), having eaten some strange chicken or possibly a magical mushroom, writes or sees, you’re not sure which, the story of an ice queen who can only be won by the man who answers all her riddles correctly. We come to understand that no man has ever managed and thus beaheadings are a frequent event in this Chinese restuarant. The hero of our tale however falls for Turandot and answers all three riddle correctly. Yet she will not love him and so he sets his own task, know my name by sunrise and you will be free, otherwise love me.
Moving from the resturant to the kitchen (bodies hang from the ceiling) we see the prince’s slave girl who loves him more than her own life being tortured in an effort to learn the prince’s name. She dies, without giving up her prince and some how in all of this Turandot realises she does love the prince and it all ends “happily-ever-after”, so to speak. A strange story and in my eyes a distinctly unloveble leading lady but the music is wonderful and the performances were superb!
I can’t say I enjoyed the production itself and I don’t believe I am alone in that! Perhaps we would have been wise to chose a more traditional production for our first Opera Outing. This being said however we tried something new and something new we got. They say that true art is art that gets people talking so maybe this was the perfect start to our Opera education - a little controversy, a glass of wine and Nessun Dorma, what more could we ask!
Looking forward to seeing you all soon!
Laura Norman
Club Manager.