![]() ![]() In that light, he distinguished Puccini as the last opera composer with any kind of lasting and truly universal popular appeal – his perceived weaknesses of cheap effects, empty bombast, shallow characters and lurid drama that critics and musicians had derided during his lifetime now have emerged as audience-pleasing virtues, essential to maintaining popularity of the genre (or perhaps only in adapting it to the cultural norms of our times). Perhaps the most telling assessment came from jazzman and populist critic Spike Hughes, who had noted – in 1957! – that as far as the general public was concerned opera had come to a full stop, with all modern work over our head, overly cerebral, and downright dull. As William Berger noted, it's indeed ironic, and perhaps fitting, that the work often cited as the very last in the 325-year line of traditional Italian opera ends not with a bang, nor even a whimper, but a question mark. He died in 1924, never having figured it out and leaving a gaping hole in his masterwork. He had a gripping plot brimming with passion from lust to torture, riveting characters, an exotic setting, fabulous music and a rousing conclusion, but wrestled for years how to connect them. ![]() Giacomo Puccini faced that challenge from the other side of the footlights in Turandot, his final opera. But perhaps she's not so different from opera fans, who know their stories by heart, including the endings. Finally, we acknowledge sources for further information.Īmong her many inscrutable mysteries, my wife often scans the end of a novel before reading it through from the beginning. In this article on Giacomo Puccini's final opera Turandot, we explore the fable on which it is based, the opera itself, Puccini's futile struggle to complete it, others' efforts at completion, the premiere, some historically significant early recordings and some acclaimed recordings. ![]()
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