Touching Up ‘Turandot’

So, after 76 years of Puccini’s “Turandot,” performed with a glorious climax by Franco Alfano, Luciano Berio is commissioned to rewrite the ending (“Bridge to the Future,” by Jan Breslauer, May 26). Maybe Alfano’s contribution isn’t perfect, but Berio’s work is a totally forgettable anticlimax that adds nothing of value to Puccini’s masterpiece while subtracting much splendor.

Calendar’s story says Berio’s ending wasn’t ready to premiere at La Scala. Maybe so; however, his substitution was unlikely to be tolerated by the demanding and musically astute Milanese, and that’s a much more likely reason that L.A. Opera was selected for this premiere.

As meager as Berio’s talent is, however, the real travesty here is Gian-Carlo del Monaco’s staging of the final scene with a touch of necrophilia and a homage to “Basic Instinct” (with dagger but, unfortunately, without Sharon Stone).

Poor Audrey Stottler’s Turandot couldn’t be heard above the orchestra and, as shown on your cover page, she was burdened with the ugliest costume of all time, even worse than the production’s Mandarin with the pink Mohawk. Hei-Kyung Hong’s Liu was lovely, and Franco Farina as Calaf hit all the right notes and was a good sport about kissing the corpse.

CAROLINE R. MILTON

Ventura

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Placido Domingo Inc. hits bottom again. Or perhaps tenors never do have artistic vision, just golden voices and hubris.

P.D. Inc., who brought to Los Angeles the Bach B-minor Mass as a staged revenge of the mud people with elementary school reject art, has delivered Los Angeles another turkey.

Perhaps Puccini is responsible for the premature ejaculation in Act 2, and perhaps Toscanini was dead right stopping the performance where he did.

Gee! I can hardly wait for “Gianni Schicchi” realized as the Marx Brothers meet Mussolini--coming soon to an opera house in Los Angeles.

JAY GALBRAITH

Los Angeles