He initially started off covering the general news, but is now focused on reviews and interviews in New York City.Opera is thriving. As the emperor, Bosi’s firm tenor nicely filled the reverent hush which often accompanied his words; under his regal bearing, one could hear the character’s displeasure at the possibility of beheading another prince.As Turandot, Christine Goerke marvelously captured the princess as both a merciless ruler, and later a vulnerable woman awakening to love. These emotions were brought to a fervent peak with Eyvazov’s high C in the phrase “No, no, haughty Princess!

Her sharp, pointing gestures towards Calaf both kept him at bay while thrusting upon him the burden of her cold disdain, wiping her hands as she stepped off the stage’s dais. (In the daytime scenes, Zeffirelli’s runaway scenic design, which renders legendary China as a tourist-trap Sichuan restaurant, loses the performers in a deluge of golden glitter. After witnessing the prince’s execution, and then Turandot’s beauty, one could clearly trace the arc of Eyvazov going from fear to infatuation through Calaf’s conflicted phrases; from then on, passionate certainty carried Eyvazov through the night. LIVE IN HD . A more heartfelt sentiment came shortly with their following number “Ho una casa nell’Honan,” where they pined for their homes in tender counterpoint.

Set against the opulence of Zeffirelli’s 1987 production, the evening’s cast and ample chorus did much in bringing vocal and dramatic vitality to the forefront, with Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin making of the most of his particular gifts.

In contrast, tenor Yusif Eyvazov sang sensitively and musically as Calàf, but his voice seemed to lack resonance, receding behind Nézet-Séguin’s orchestra.As happens so often in this opera, the heroic leads were eclipsed by the lyric soprano role of the slave Liù, here sung with delicate legato by Eleonora Burratto.Speaking of eclipses, the lighting design, or what remains of it, by Gil Wechsler, has dated even worse than the chinoiserie sets and costumes it’s supposed to illuminate. This live cinema transmission is part of the Met’s award-winning Live in HD series, bringing opera to more than 2,200 theaters in more than 70 countries worldwide. From the clamor of the ensemble, the lines of Eleonora Buratto’s Liu came forward nicely, emerging from the crowd rather than beginning well above it. The score took on a disquieting, shadowy texture underlined by the conductor’s choice of hypnotically slow tempos.The protagonists of the opera were oddly matched. Now it’s time to give that audience some serious art to chew on, not just appetizers like this We get it: you like to have control of your own internet experience.Below are steps you can take in order to whitelist Observer.com on your browser:Click the AdBlock button on your browser and select Click the AdBlock Plus button on your browser and select Click the AdBlock Plus button on your browser and select With The Met’s top-flight orchestra, chorus, and strong cast, the music casts its own spell. )And in a broader sense, the Met needs to throw some more light on this problematic opera’s perplexing attitudes toward race and sex. Yet this Turandot, Nézet-Séguin’s first Puccini assignment, was a mixed result. It lasted until 1975. The return to the Metropolitan Opera of the late Franco Zeffirelli’s glitzy production of Since the 1990s, the number of people willing to commit to spending 3 1/2 to 4 hours at the opera on a midweek nights has been dwindling for a variety of reasons, the most obvious perhaps being the difficulty of lumbering through the next workday on only five hours of sleep. Prior to that, the only other production of TURANDOT seen at the Lincoln Center house was Cecil Beaton's, which premiered at the old opera house in 1961. Set against the opulence of Zeffirelli’s 1987 production, the evening’s cast and ample chorus did much in bringing vocal and dramatic vitality to the forefront, with Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin making of the most of his particular gifts.Following the opening execution motif with its five dire chords, the edict sung by Javier Arrey’s Mandarin featured an unsettling and thin texture from the strings, before swelling into something more befitting a royal decree.