COVER STORY
BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE With his new finale for Puccini's· 'Turandot,' leading Italian composer Luciano Berlo is reaching into the musical past to reshape Los Angeles Opera's aesthetic
By JAN BRESIAUER ·
OME-It's spring in the Eternal City, and the Piazza di Spagna teems with gawkers and idlers. A cascade of pink. azaleas adorns the Spanish Steps, the. famous gathering spot of English Romantics from Keats to Byron. The late afternoon sun burnishes the horse carriages and the Dolce & Gabbana and M:is soni stores. Languor and renewal are in the air. Just a couple of blocks away, Luciano Berlo, argu ably Italy's most important living composer, sits in his second-floor office at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Behind his massive wooden desk is a centuries-·old painting of a lutenist. Strains of a Bach concerto waft into the room, and motorbikes whiz over the cobblestones of the Via Vittoria below. Subordinates pop in and out, cuckoo-like, with a "Maestro?" this and a "Maestro?" that. It's a digni fied cacophony, and the feeling of expectation is as palpable as a rest between notes. · Founded in 1585 and famed for its chorus and or chestra (now under the direction of Myung-Whun Chung), Santa Cecilia, Rome's oldest musical insti tution, has never had a home to call its own. But on this weekend in late April, that's about to change. During the next two da:ys, Berlo, Santa Cecilia's president for the past two years, will unveil the acad emy's first permanent base, designed by architect Renzo Piano. PAOLO SACCHI / For The Times "He built what we call the city of music: three im- Luciano Berio in Rome. He has three projects with Los Angeles Opera, beginning with "Turandot."
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·CCM11 STORY Berio: After Puccini, He ·Will Tackle Monteverdi Continued from Page 9 way, there's an archeological dig. Next to a movie house, a medieval turret has been turned into a bis tro. The tenses of time coexist in a similar way in Berio's music. He has incorporated earlier composi" tions by other composers into his own _pieces and written adapta tions of other composers' scores. In "Rendering,• for example, Berlo took Schubert;s unfinished lOth Symphony and filled in the com 'I believe in the talent of poser's sketches with his distinct Berlo, and I believe it will sound. "Sinfonia,• written for or chestra and the Swingle Singers, bring a lot of attention and "samples" a movement from· a reactions.' Mahler symphony, ,only to reinter pret it with an array of quotations PLAclDo DGlllNGO from other sources. l.Ds Angeles Opera artistic directDr Part of an mtemational cadre of avant-garde composers wbo came . • STEFANO Al\LTERA I For The nmes to the fore after World War Il, Berlo Tenor Franco Farina plays C8laf in Los Angeles Opera's production of "Turandot,_" with Berld.s ftnale. is a creative coeval of Pierre Bou lez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gyor At moments, the maestro is al himself as an iconoclast and various texts in a meditation on the ravaged female ancestor by send gy Llgeti arid Luigi Nono .. Yet un most puckish. More often, he's im~ provocateur, challenging convene character of Ulysses. .ing a gaggle of suitors to the gal like these other formidable Mod perious and a bit cranky, not both tional notions of genre, orchestra Reviewing the .1996 La Scala pre lows for failing to answer her three ernists, Berlo has been known for a erfug to hide his impatience. When tion and narrative. miere of "Outis, • T"!Dles · music riddles. A prince named Calaf ar sense of harmony and lyricism he feels he's said enough on one In the early 1970s, he returned to critic Mark Swed wrote that '"it rives with his father and their loyal an Italianate quality-that makes topic, even if it's only a few words, Europe and became director ,of breaks no new ground for Berio slave Uu, who is secretly in love him more acce8sible to the un he orders, "Let's move;" Then he Paris' electronic muSic hothouse one immediately recognizes the with Calaf. He correctly answers trained ear. flashes a big conipensatQrY IRCAM, the Institut de Recherche composer's sound, a kind of ocean Turandot' s riddles, but she still re His tendency to provoke arid sIDil.e-the tactics of a man who's et Coordination Acoustique Mu of voices and instruments with fuses him. Calaf then poses his chami is as evident in his perso~ long gotten·away with using Cha ·sique. Indeed, he's known for ever-changing focus in which one own chaUe~ge, giving the princess as his music. A short man dwarfed risma to balance impudence. pushing classical music into the regularly gets Jost and then finds a single day to learn his name; if by his big wooden desk, Berlo That was the case in the 1960s, realm of computers, tape record oneself again. But it is the work of a she succeeds, he will go to his plays the role of commander with ·when he was teaching at Mills Col ers and other nontraditional tools master, and it can hold the listener death. Llu is pressed to reveal Ca ease, even as he hints at resenting lege in Oakland, ·and later at Har long before they were common easily enthralled for its tWo hO\lrs. 11 lafs name but kills herself instead, its obligations. His look is stylishly vard and -Juilliard. When· he first place. At the same time, Berlo has and Calaf conquers Turandot with rumpled, a fleshy but still appeal came to the U.S., he was married to long held an interest in traditional erio's latest project bridging a kiss. Finally assenting to mar ing face framed by a collarless gray Cathy Berberian, an American so folk music. In both cases, he's been past and present is the new riage, Turandot announces that shirt and plaid jacket. prano for whom he wrote some of driven by his desire to extend the B. completion of "Turandot,• thestranger'snameislove. his best-known compositions, in use of the human voice. which he tackled at the behest of When Puccini died, the third act p;:::======~ eluding "Sequenza ill" and "Folk Berlo's works for the musical conductor Riccardo Chailly. The was still a sketch, in terms of plot Songs. 11 Berlo quickly established stage also rethink the relationship piece premiered in concert form in . as well as music. He had already Rejoice. Recharge. Relax. between sound and text. They in January, withChaillyandtheRoyal deviated from Gozzi's story-the MOZAK£ AND MORE r.::======:;.., elude "Opera," created with New Concertgebouw Orchestra, at the sympathetic character of the slave -s VOICEOVEAS? York's living Theater, and "Un Re Music Festival of the Canary Is- girl and her romantic death were Vl >z 1bu'w ..... laoUls tor chat ideal in Ascolta" (A King listening), a lands. After L.A. Opera, it will be his additions. But then what? His C) deep male vaice fur voir:eowers, meta-theatrical reconsideration of stagedattheMuziektheaterinAm- notes left it a cliffhanger: What ,...t COVER STORY last century. With his background strange-four saxophones. Some it's too early to say, mostly because and tremendous experience di times the singers will be character I have massive respect for Placi recting Puccini operas, we are con ized by a different way of singing, do," he says. Asked if there's-a li fident that he was the right choice almost pop. There is going to ~. I brettist, he retorts with an only to briilg the new ending to the don't say 'commercial' music, but half-sarcastic, "No, I hate libret U.S." mannerisms that today's audience tists." All he will say is that "there An added bonus .is that L.A. Op will recognize in the vocal 1ech will be a text, words, fragments ofa era got the world premiere staging nique.• story maybe." of the ending. "The world premiere As Nagano sees it; that makes Berio, having clearly spent what was supposed to be at La Scala," perf!!ct sense. "It would only seem little patience he had for ques Baitzel says. "But Berlo did not de normal that he contemplate re tions, decides that the interview is liver on time. We were second or specting the provocative nature of over. He stands, gestures across third in line, in the lucky position Monteverdi's score ... by incorpo the room and offers another com of getting the premiere without rating the musical semantics of our pensatory tidbit. paying one dime.• time.• "Do you know who was the Even the final Berio-L.A. Opera owner of this piano there?" he asks erio's second commission project looks backward and for with insistent bonhomie. uFranz from L.A. Opera, "The Coro ward. It's brand new but based on Liszt." Bnation of Poppea," also calls a particular biography. ·1 was very As if on cue, another visitor pops upon the composer to supply surprised when he came to me her head in the door. "In bocca al what's missing from the original with the idea,• Domingo says. "It lupo,. she gushes, invoking the op Written in 1643, Monteverdi's final will be about all my musical career. era world equivalent of "break a opera tells the story of the emperor So I could be remembering certain leg" to wish the maestro well for Nero, caught between his desire moments, or having dialogues the opening of the new facility. Be for Ihe power-hungry Poppea and with composers and conductors rlo. then turns from the Liszt piano his wife, Ottavia, who is driven to that I've worked with, and from to his. yolln.g colleague, from the lethal scheming by his infidelity. history. There could be many char past to the future, and smiles. D · In the usual manner of Baroque acters, but it might be a mono composition, Monteverdi gave the logue-me having a conversation "Turandot," Los Angeles Opera, opera primarily a vocal line and a with Wagner, Verdi, Mozart, Callas Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. bass line. Contemporary interpret and different people across my ca Grand Ave., LA. Thursday, May 30, ers have supplied orchestrations reer. It could be the characters are June 4, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 14, 7:30 p.m.; that run the gamut from the inap real or you just hear them. Some~ June 1and16, 2 p.m. Ends June 16. propriately lush to stripped-down thing based on me, that's where we Tickets: $30-$165. Call (213) 365- "period practice." Berlo is ex stand." 3500. pected to creiit~ something that .Ask Berlo to talk about the new will'give a nod to Baroque tradition opera, however, and he refuses. Jan Breslauer is a regular contribu but will also be contemporary. 'Tm going to do something, but tor to Calendar. "Monteverdi was looKing ahead at the same time he was very close liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~~~;p;9;;j;w9;p;.. ;jjjjjjj;;w9 •• ;p;p;;jjiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil .PAOLO SACCHI/ For The Times to his own past and close to his Berlo believes that Puccini intended "Turandot" "to end quietly." own present, and because of that closeness, he could look into the presence that he could love." Berto have a glorious rhetorical ending. future in a very new way,". he says. says. uMusically it's beautiful, but I'm convinced that Puccini wanted "The libretto could have been dramaturgically, it doesn't make it to end quietly. All the premises of given to Fellini to make a film. It any sense. She's killed, and just 30 'Turandot,' they don'q~o to a reso touches very heated subjects and seconds after that, Calaf and Tu lution, an ending, happy or un at the same time with a great el randot are 'interacting,' so to haJ)py. The sketches say a sus egance." speak. . pended ending, like a question Beri<>'s plans are inkeepingwith "He doesn't know what to do mark." that spirit. "J. want to have a very with Liu,· Berto continues. "But if According to Nagano, "Berio's mul~eted · presentation," he you take Liu out, 'Turandot' is a ending concludes as the final and says. "The orchestra is very very hard work, intense and very ultimate enigma ... this being in often aggressive. And then at the stark contrast to Mr. Alfano's end- rr======rr;:====;;;;;;;;;;::;=;;;;=:;;;:======;:;~=;; end, you see Liu dies and nobody ing. The Berio finale is more or Dance to the cares about it. The story goes on, ganic. When . asked recently santa Monica ignoring it completely. So you can whether the ending sounds more latest news beat. t-< not present such a musically like Berlo or more like Puccini, the Art·5 0 Indian ow V> warm, intense character and then, most accurate answer I could think z>- pffift!" . of was that the ending sounds C"l June 1• a 2• tT1 t-< Puccini left some 30 pages of more like 'Turandot.' " tT1 sketches laying out possible ap Mindful of the challenge of the ...,en proaches to the third act, most of new ending, L.A. Opera enlisted a ~m which Alfano ignored. It was in seasoned team, headed by veteran en these pages, however, that Berto director Gian-Carlo del Monaco, &2 found inspiration for his version. with Audrey Stottler in the title role t-< mz Berto also relied on germinal and Franco Farina as Calaf. The 0 ideas in the score itself, including a production is based on one Del >- :;d. reference to Wagner's uTristan and Monaco did in 1991 for Leipzig Op en Isolde" in the first act. uWagner is era. §Z always present," Berio says. "The "The big challenge in any 'Tu 0 first two measures contain the randot' production is for a director If you're not already S w~ 11 to 7 • Sunday t 1 to 5 ~ Wagnerian chords, the elements to work sensitively with the cho enjoying the savings and :Adrmssion f1 • $2 off with ad ~ that he develops later." rus, and Del Monaco is known as a convenience of home delivery, ~ Berio has created an ambiguous master with that kind of direction," call 1-800-426-3232. OVer 120 Exhihitoi'S F""' ending. "What Alfano did was says Edgar Baitzel, L.A. Opera di 0 Pre-Columbian • lridian • Latin American Alt "'0 heavy-handed," Berlo says. "I rector· of artistic operations. "His "' think it was Toscanini's fault too, father [Mario delMonaco) was one Info: (818)905-9299 www.americanindianartshow.com latimes.com 01HD205 tbat. he was coq.vinc~d, it sho.u).d of ,the rµost ~llP-\>1!5, CaJaf~ qf.~e 69 • www.calendarlive.com