Rating: 
Summary: Great production and performance overall!
Review: A great opera production must strike a perfect balance between music and theatre. It is not enough to have great singers accompanied by a great orchestra without there being an equally great stage production; vice versa is true as well. In this grand production of Puccini's Turandot, you not only have a great maestro Zubin Mehta spearheading the musical side of the opera, but top notch Chinese theatrical professionals who paid a careful attention to reflect the intricate custumes and aura of Ming Dynasty.This DVD was not only a pleasure to the eyes but to the ears. Although, I must confess that I was not very impressed with the cast except Barbara Fritoli who sang as Liu. This relatively young soprano sang with clear unwavering voice with passion and musicality involved in the role of the slave girl. I think she would have been better as Turandot. Giovanna Casolla is an older, very mature soprano who, in my opinion, was an okay candidate to sing Turandot, but a more younger soprano with higher and brighter timbre would have been better suited to sing the impetuous and temperamental princess. Sergei Larin was also okay as the young prince Calaf, but don't expect Pavarotti, who has epitomized the role of Calaf. The song in point was of course Nessun dorma, where Larin failed to take full advantage of the high C at the end to not only show the audience what he can do but to flourish and declare triumphantly his soon to be realized victory. But again, in the grand scheme of things, there was a great balance of music and theatre in the highest order. I recommend the DVD and it is worth watching it over and again.
Rating: 
Summary: I've never enjoyed opera like this before ...
Review: Although one can quibble about the direction, the music and staging are absolutely fantastic! This was truly an enjoyable, inspiring and spectacular performance. It has turned me into an opera fan. I am telling all my Gen-X friends about it.
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary version
Review: Apart from the opera itself, which is sublime (we already know that of course), the orchestra is excellent and the singers are from good to very very good. The stage is astonishing, as it was built specially to perform this opera, within the Forbidden City of Beijing (one of its real buildings is used as backstage). The customs, designed by the Chinese people copying the fashion of the Chinese court at the time the plot is supposed to be taking place. The dances are choreographed by a renowned Chinese choreographer. It's a pleasure and a moving experience to listen to Puccini's music of a Chinese story very well performed (it touches you) and not totally seen by occidental eyes, as this performance has been assembled with the collaboration of Chinese people. Do buy it.
Rating:
Summary: One Star taken away for Want of a Better Artistic Director
Review: As a Chinese with some idea about Chinese history and culture, I have the following reservations: 1) The Forbidden City-- the setting of the play-- was built in the wake of Ming Dynasty and was only used as the Imperial Palace in early Ching. The costume here is neither Ming or Ching, nor any suggestion of a mixture. The Palace anyway has completely faded and virtually colourless, making a stark contrast with the bright and colourful costumes. 2) The Chinese Kung Fu Scene ( as well as a number of other scenes for embellishment ) is totally unnecesary and the performer's costume in particular is peculiar. We also have too much zoom-ins and zoom-outs and then diversions (in the form of montages?) into irrelevant Chinese spectacular scenes or images like various shots of the Great Wall or other scenes taken from the Forbidden City itself, just to remind viewers that this is China. These may distract and annoy some viewers. 3) The actors acting and singing with full facial and body expressions in such costumes and in such make-ups ( particularly their funny beards or unnatural finger gestures) look funny to oriental eyes. Madame Butterfly ( the one with the Japanese singer ) is doing much better in these aspects. 4) More often than not, the setting is flooded with people, peole from both sides, people from everywhere: perhaps typical of any Chinese scene. But does it really help in a musical drama? But a glance through some of the reviews seems to suggest that these are over worries, at least so from the eyes of the Europeans: most of them seem to enjoy it. The part of Turandot is a difficult enough, perhaps even more impressing would be the singing of the supporting actress, the prince is marvelous too. All in all, suffice to say that in terms of singing, both the solos and the chorus or even the orchestra, they are all superb: they are even better than most of the Metropolitan performances. On the music score, there might be some justification when Mahler slighted Pucinni as a song writer "who just knows some orchestration". Althugh one might argue that in a way, the two are just 6 and half a dozen. the fact remains, as a whole, Turandot is rather noisy. It seems that the sense of drama in Turandot is not so potent, at least not as popent as Madame Butterfly. And of course, one could always turn to Verdi, like Pucinni himself did, for an alternative. And in any event, credits should be given to the excellent recorded sound and picture of the production.
Rating:
Summary: Quantitative Evaluation
Review: Audio Merits:7/10;Video Merits:7/10;Scenario-Libretto Merits:7/10;Cinematographic Merits:8/10;Musical Merits:9/10;Overall Artistic Performance:7/10;DVD Extras:6/10;Recording Total Quality:7/10. Professor's Recommendation: An item only for operaphiles.
Rating: 
Summary: Avoid this turkey
Review: For a long time I avoided buying this DVD, fearing that it would be like the football stadium Aidas that you see here and there: "Cast of thousands! Horses and elephants! Truly spectacular!" Finally, after getting all the other Turandot DVDs, I broke down and bought this one. Unfortunately, I was right -- this is just a circus. The musical values are actually not all that bad, but they are overwhelmed by the colossally bad production values. All the action is set in the midst of a vast plaza in which no one ever would expect an opera to be set. The cinematography specializes in displaying "look how big this is!" Scene after scene is shot from afar, over the heads or shoulders of a huge audience, presumably to show us how big the square is in Peking, how many people are attending, and how enormously clever the producers are to have arranged this. The opera itself is largely overlooked in the rush to be with it. I could go on about other, less serious faults, but why bother? There are three other Turandots -- the Met, San Francisco, and Salzburg -- that are infinitely superior to this production. Buy one or more of them, and leave this turkey on its roost.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid this turkey
Review: For a long time I avoided buying this DVD, fearing that it would be like the football stadium Aidas that you see here and there: "Cast of thousands! Horses and elephants! Truly spectacular!" Finally, after getting all the other Turandot DVDs, I broke down and bought this one. Unfortunately, I was right -- this is just a circus. The musical values are actually not all that bad, but they are overwhelmed by the colossally bad production values. All the action is set in the midst of a vast plaza in which no one ever would expect an opera to be set. The cinematography specializes in displaying "look how big this is!" Scene after scene is shot from afar, over the heads or shoulders of a huge audience, presumably to show us how big the square is in Peking, how many people are attending, and how enormously clever the producers are to have arranged this. The opera itself is largely overlooked in the rush to be with it. I could go on about other, less serious faults, but why bother? There are three other Turandots -- the Met, San Francisco, and Salzburg -- that are infinitely superior to this production. Buy one or more of them, and leave this turkey on its roost.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid this turkey
Review: For a long time I avoided buying this DVD, fearing that it would be like the football stadium Aidas that you see here and there: "Cast of thousands! Horses and elephants! Truly spectacular!" Finally, after getting all the other Turandot DVDs, I broke down and bought this one. Unfortunately, I was right -- this is just a circus. The musical values are actually not all that bad, but they are overwhelmed by the colossally bad production values. All the action is set in the midst of a vast plaza in which no one ever would expect an opera to be set. The cinematography specializes in displaying "look how big this is!" Scene after scene is shot from afar, over the heads or shoulders of a huge audience, presumably to show us how big the square is in Peking, how many people are attending, and how enormously clever the producers are to have arranged this. The opera itself is largely overlooked in the rush to be with it. I could go on about other, less serious faults, but why bother? There are three other Turandots -- the Met, San Francisco, and Salzburg -- that are infinitely superior to this production. Buy one or more of them, and leave this turkey on its roost.
Rating:
Summary: haha,this is a great movie
Review: hi my friend,have you ever seen this movie?If you do not,you must to see because this movie is very good.
Rating: 
Summary: Spectacular production values but a let-down overall
Review: I agree with other reviewers who praise the production values in this performance. Zhang Yimou's stage direction is very impressive and reflects his wonderful visual sense. Although at times he appears to have everyone under the sun on stage, the direction does not veer into the worst excesses of Zeffirelli. Zhang makes some interesting decisions regarding how to stage the chorus-dominated scenes, and, by and large, they work quite well (especially the invocation to the moon). The DVD direction, on the other hand, is another story. The director keeps cutting to shots of the chorus, who are static because they are arranged like a choral society on the steps of the Forbidden Palace, while very interesting and/or beautiful things are happening on stage(such as the wonderful dance during the 1st scene's choral hymn to the executioner). Another example of the director's strange choices is his insistence on showing the viewing audience the artificial moon during the moon invocation (oh, look, it's the moon! and there's an axe superimposed! how clever!) when Zhang had staged a beautiful and effective scene. The performances were generally disappointing. Larin's singing was adequate, no more, and his acting dismal. Casolla sounded fine and she generated some heat during the riddle scene, but the final love duet was limp. Frittoli was an effective Liu, but the PPP trio was made more annoying by using pointless affectations to create character (one was, apparently, suppposed to be drunk in the 1st scene. Why? who knows?). I'd really give this performance 2 1/2 stars.
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