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Title: colorful production, well performed
Review: The people of Valencia must be considered lucky to have a magnificent new, Calatrava designed, opera house. By the looks of things it has an impressive orchestra pit, an excellent orchestra and a stage with all the correct bells and whistles.This is an oriental style, grand and colorful production of Puccini's final and unfinished opera. The sets and costumes are lavish; it must have cost a heap to mount. The casting is generally reliable although Marco Berti (Calaf), while hitting all the correct notes, is a wooden actor and lacks stage presence. Maria Guleghina (Turandot) is steely voiced and good but not great in her role.Zubin Mehta,who has conducted a number of DVD and CD recodings of Turandot, keeps a firm grip on the not too subtle score. The picture quality is clear with excellent color definition and the sound is warm and realistic. This is probably the best DVD version of Turandot at present.
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