Scottish Opera: Turandot, Glasgow: 'electrifying'

David McVicar’s thrilling new production of Turandot makes for an unmissable night at the opera, writes Ken Walton

Scottish Opera: Turandot, Theatre Royal, Glasgow ★★★★★

When opera fires on all cylinders it’s the most thrilling, most all-embracing of art forms. Add a high-performance turbo charge and you come close to Sir David McVicar’s electrifying new production of Turandot for Scottish Opera. It’s 40 years since the company fully staged Puccini’s unfinished last opera - a self-indulgent attempt by filmmaker Tony Palmer which delivered Franco Alfano’s completion as an un-staged postscript - but this one has been worth waiting for.

In typical McVicar style, every second is accounted for, every theatrical decision justified, not least his forwarding of the action from a mythical China to Mussolini’s fascist Italy. The impact is immediate, Puccini’s brutal opening chords instantly met with visions of heartless decadence, merciless authoritarianism and societal decay; the chorus and actors throughout are a visceral, frenzied mob.

Is it too fanciful to read this as an allegory of global happenings today? Perhaps, and anyway this is very much an intimate, human story, at its heart the beautiful but troubled Princess Turandot, whose defensive cruelty - her suitors beheaded if they cannot answer her riddles - is utterly shattered by Calaf, his fearless passion melting her icy heart. Soprano Trine Møller and tenor Victor Starsky are superlative in these roles, Møller deliciously clean and lyrical, Starsky equally pure and effortlessly impassioned. His Nessun dorma is a showstopper.

There are simply no weak links in this compelling cast, but special mention goes to Hye-Youn Lee who captures hearts as the fateful Liù. Meanwhile as Ping, Pang and Pong, the opera’s light relief, Josef Jeongmeen Ahn, Aled Hall and Luvo Maranti assume their commedia dell’Arte roles with satirical precision.

The Scottish Opera Orchestra under Stuart Stratford embrace the fire and opulence of Puccini’s exotic score, but ultimately this is a triumph of the holistic: where dramaturgy, stagecraft, music, even some novel amplification techniques, combine to create an unmissable night at the opera.

Turandot is at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 25, 28, 31 October and 4 & 7 November, and at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 11, 14, 17, 19 & 22 November, see www.scottishopera.org.uk

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