Gramophone Awards
2023
Finalist - Opera

Gramophone Magazine
March 2023
Recording of the Month

Presto Recording of the Week
10th March 2023

Sondra Radvanovsky (Turandot), Jonas Kaufmann (Calaf), Ermonela Jaho (Liù), Michele Pertusi (Timur), Michael Spyres (Altoum), Mattia Olivieri (Ping), Gregory Bonfatti (Pang), Siyabonga Maqungo (Pong), Michele Pertusi (Timur), Michael Spyres (Altoum), and Michael Mofidian (Mandarino), Orchestra e Coro dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Antonio Pappano

Star-studded studio recording of Puccini’s Turandot featuring an exceptional cast.

This new version features the original finale composed by Franco Alfano (Puccini died before completing the score), including the ~104 bars famously omitted by Toscanini. And of course, the world-famous opera hit “Nessun dorma” sung by Jonas Kaufmann.

The first time Antonio Pappano, Jonas Kaufmann, and Sondra Radvanovsky have undertaken Turandot.

Follows the multi-award-winning 2015 recording of Aida and Madama Butterfly.

• Performances with Pappano at London’s Royal Opera House in March/April 2023

• “…Turandot is infused with a beautiful subtlety, emerging within an opera full of biting irony. Puccini moves between tragedy and lightness, and that's something I really like.” – Antonio Pappano

Press Reviews:

• “This “Turandot” promises to be one of the best recordings in recent years. [...] He [Pappano] gave a passionate reading of the score, extracting all the exoticism and oriental rhythms that Puccini wrote into his score. […] Pappano knows how to keep tension in the orchestra. He plays along with the singers at every moment, as if the orchestra is breathing with them, creating instances of delicacy and beauty, especially in Liu’s arias” (Operawire, 30 March 2022)

• “Revelation of the evening Sondra Radvanosky, making her debut in the role of Turandot: in her voice she has frost and fire, power of emission and granitic high notes” (Avvenire, 15 March 2022; Sandro Cappelletto)

• “for the first time the complete opera is therefore recorded with Alfano's first finale” (Connessi all’Opera, 15 March 2022, Filippo Antichi)

"A Turandot for the ages? This recording holds its own against venerable competition and, in the original Alfano completion, is unique." - Gramophone Magazine, March 2023.