“Why JEFF BECK is UNCOPYABLE” goes the title of a video discussion from three years ago that has garnered 2.9 million views and 11,271 comments for all-purpose music pro Rick Beato’s You Tube channel. Beato, a musician, producer, sound engineer and educator with a graduate degree from the New England Conservatory of Music, came to that conclusion over years of listening to Beck play but never quite being able to figure out how he produces the sounds that come from his guitar.
“No one sounds like Jeff Beck and no one could sound like Jeff Beck,” he says. “He plays the most unique phrases of anyone I can think of.”
Indeed, Beck, who died from bacterial meningitis at age 78 in 2023, is one of those musicians who seems to play with his own aural signature tucked within every line, any given piece being so unmistakably him playing that it requires no additional authentication. (I’m picturing AI nerds at this very moment producing guitar solos “in the style of Jeff Beck,” which gets me half-riled that they dare to intrude on such sacred ground, and half-humored knowing that they’ll fail.)
Besides, or perhaps because of, his technical chops that have earned him consistent placement near the top of multiple “greatest guitarists of all time” lists, Beck wandered through the musical firmament poking his guitar into any genre that piqued his curiosity and held the potential for his creative byplay with the work at hand.
And no, it is not every day, nor even every year, I would bet, that famous rockers tread the rarefied turf of opera and come out with a prize as soaringly lovely, innovative, and revelatory as Beck does with “Nessun Dorma,” one of the most beloved arias from Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot.”
Though you may not know it by name, you will almost certainly recognize it in Beck’s treatment, electrified as it is. (I’ll also include a pure operatic version below.)
While some opera buffs may bristle at the sheer chutzpah of any rocker taking on their hallowed genre, Beck’s love, respect and dexterity for beautiful melodic lines shines through every note of this 2010 version. This is not Perry Como doing a network television version in 1955 while staring dreamily off stage. It’s Jeff Beck, peering hard into his guitar and very soul, hearing what only he seemingly hears, then creating a whole new soundscape from a loved-but-done-to-death classic and making it his own.
And now ours, too. Let’s give it a listen.
***
***
The actual story of “Turandot” is one of those silly, over-the-top operatic hijinks featuring a smitten prince and rebuffing princess. Her hand has been promised to any suitor who can answer three riddles (wrong answers unfortunately begetting the suitor’s death). The prince in this tale succeeds in solving the riddle, but then her apparently just-for-the-hell-of-it treachery kicks in and she denies him the prize.
Things get even more depraved from there, as he counter-offers that if she can guess his name by the next morning, she can kill him anyway, but if she can’t, she must yield to his desire. (Sounds to me like they deserve each other…)
The notion of pairing such material with ravishing musicality is part of what makes opera opera, a seeming conundrum that I explored in some depth in a post nearly four years ago on four Puccini arias, one of which happened to include this very “Nessun Dorma.” That was long before I discovered that Jeff Beck had broached it.
And here again I must salute Beck for his altogether serious, even solemn exploration of this music as music alone, shorn of words and any distractions entailed by the storyline that begets this among various other nuggets from our prince:
Vanish, o night!
Fade, you stars!
Fade, you stars!
At dawn, I will win!
I will win! I will win!
***
***
What we seem to wind up with, interestingly enough, for all of Beck’s electronic instrumentation unknown to Puccini as he was writing in the early 1920s, is a paradox, I think: a more stripped-down version of the song, uncluttered by any imagery of scheming protagonists engaged in an absurd but lethal game.
And I say this as an opera fan of longstanding. There’s a place for all that unbridled ardor and desire, for the ridiculous emotional states it can reflect of our humanity.
That’s why we go to opera, after all—to give ourselves over to it in the heat of the opera house, with its billowing red curtains, copious tears and heaving breasts. Not so strange to us, when we truly assess our varying, sometimes volatile emotional states over a lifetime.
But Beck explores different emotional terrain here, more textured and inventive, even as he honors the essential beauty of the musical notes rattling around in Puccini’s head that sought expression a century ago, and which found their way into probably his most intriguing interpreter since, both of them geniuses of their era, with legacies fully intact.
Looking to subscribe to this blog’s pretty much weekly posts? Scroll up to the top right of this page, just plug in your email address (never shared or published) with a name—full, first name only, or pseudonym—and you’ll get email notices with each post.
See and hit the Follow button at https://www.facebook.com/andrew.hidas/ for regular 1-minute or less dispatches from the world’s great thinkers, artists and musers, accompanied always by lovely photography.
Deep appreciation to the photographers! Unless otherwise stated, some rights reserved under Creative Commons licensing.
Elizabeth Haslam, whose photos (except for books) grace the rotating banner top of homepage. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhaslam/
Library books photo by Larry Rose, Redlands, California, all rights reserved, contact: larry@rosefoto.com
Jeff Beck in concert, 2014, by Takahiro Kyono, Tokyo, Japan https://www.flickr.com/photos/75972766@N02/
Turandot poster from Wikipedia Commons
See https://andrewhidas.com/?s=Brilliant+Cover+Songs for initial paragraphs of all songs in this series
I love Puccini and saw Turandot performed by the Houston Opera company. “Nessun Dorma” may be Puccini’s most recognizable aria. Jeff Beck’s version of “Nessun Dorma” is fantastic. Giving “Nessun Dorma” the going over on an electric guitar takes creativity, guts and probably a little help from Jack Daniels. It’s certainly a far cry from his days as a Yardbird when he shared billing with a couple of other pretty good rock guitarists Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. Thanks once more for another musical clip I’d never heard.
Thanks again Andrew for giving me something I would, otherwise, have never heard. As much as I love opera, this rendition by Jeff Beck is as close to a human voice, with the emotional conveyance necessary for such an operatic piece. What a beautiful talent.
Thanks, Robert, wouldn’t doubt some Jack was part of the mix in Beck’s life and the interesting, somewhat jagged career he pursued. The one constant seemed to be his incredible talent, recognized most importantly, I think, by his peers, who pretty much uniformly bow down in homage to him.
Barbara, it’s always music to my ears (pun very much intended) when I hear I got music in front of someone who otherwise may never have run across it. And in this case, it just confirms Beck’s incredible talent when an opera lover resonates with what he did with a beloved classic. (I’m thinking Puccini would appreciate it as well…) I also appreciate your reflection on Beck’s approximation of the human voice, which I hadn’t considered, and his rising to meet the challenge posed by opera in conveying it with such deep emotion. That helps me appreciate what he did all the more. So thanks for popping in here and a Happy New Year of more good listening to you!
It is fascinating to behold the interwoven, and vastly different forms, of genius manifested in this post. Beck, Pavarotti and Puccini embody here, in my mind, the miraculous and mysterious forms that come through the human flesh from Lord-knows-where to evoke such raw and beautiful emotion that reaches deep into our souls.
I’ll amen that, Jay. It is something to behold—and to remember and appreciate in the face of so much that aggressively diminishes human life. Happy New Year!
Opera is not one of my pursuits, so I appreciate the introductions whenever I get them! Bright and passionate sounds for the depths of wintertime.
Glad to have you venture a listen here, Jeanette! Opera houses the world over are stuffed with people who had always proclaimed themselves not “opera people”—until they attend one or are slayed by something they hear at the right time or in the right mood that binds them to opera forevermore. Check out the other three Puccini arias I highlighted a few years ago, along with reflections on why opera still matters—and likely always will—here:
https://andrewhidas.com/four-puccini-arias-to-die-for-a-thousand-times/
And Happy New Year!
will do!