Torre del Lago, Puccini's home town by the sea; 1906. Mrs Puccini accuses the maid of having an affair with him, which they both deny. Mrs. goes crazy, the girl flees and kills herself. All this is cross cut to Palmer (who sounds like a bit of a prick) staging Turandot, which Puccini was struggling with at the time. We notice certain parallels in both stories and the elderly gents in 1906 who act as the Chorus (William Squire, Peter Woodthorpe, Andrew Cruickshank) mirror three similar characters in the opera. So an ambitious idea from writer Charles Wood, but somehow doesn't quite come off.
Robert Stephenson and Virginia McKenna are the couple - she's too much for me. Plus Ronald Pickup, Judith Howarth as the unfortunate girl, Robert Urquhart as her father, Rupert Graves. Our print was very muddy, for some reason; photographed by Nic Knowland.
There are one of two moments when the power in the opera does match the action. I wonder if it might have been better without the modern day production stuff at all. Q had the sense to bail immediately - there was something about the credits scene that put her off straight away.
Looks like it was shot on location.
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