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The 5,000 most satisfied people in America Monday must have been in the Fox Theater audience at the Metropolitan Opera's "Turandot" production here. The curtain-raiser had been anticipated on at least half a dozen counts in addition to the first-night glamour. It more than lived up to expectations. A generation has passed since "Turandot" last graced the boards, during which time it has sunk into the semi-oblivion of occasional recordings. In view of its musical splendor and dramatic excitement, its neglect is, at first, hard to understand.

But with the [beginning] of the second act, the explanation becomes apparent: "Turandot," besides executing many a wooing prince, also is a soprano-killer. It builds to one of the longest vocal crescendos in the literature, demanding prolonged periods above high C. In short, it takes a soprano of Birgit Nilsson's power and range to handle its near-Wagnerian proportions. The audience was well advised in its wild acclaim of Miss Nilsson. Without her, the long scene beginning with the awesome "In Questa Reggia" and concluding with the vanquishing of the "fire and ice" after the riddle solving, would have collapsed, and with it, the entire production. Instead, it was a real stunner, mounting constantly in intensity and splendor.

Franco Corelli, whose Atlanta debut was among the major attractions Monday night, showed why he has been receiving such loud huzzahs abroad. Corelli's good looks already have been well publicized. His stage presence is a lesser known quality. His tone is clear and exact and ranks him among the best of the best.

Puccini always compensated his hapless heroines with glorious arias, and the character Liu is no exception. Although she dies, like Butterfly, she, likewise, goes down magnificently. Lucine Amara chose to interpret the role in a self-effacing manner, and she accomplished her intent beautifully. But her rags and downcast eyes did not diminish the luster of her voice in the first and third act arias.

Whether "Turandot" is Puccini's greatest opera may be argued, but it certainly is his most harmonically advanced and most exotic. Despite his demands on the principals, he relies here, more than in any other of his works, on the chorus to advance the action. Choruses dominate the first act in particular, with its volatile crowds and sweetly singing children (performed Monday night by a chorus of women with a slight diminution of effect.)

"Turandot," then, is not a few arias loosely linked together. One man, Kurt Adler, handled both the conductor's and the chorus master's duties, and to him goes credit for a large share of the production impact and luster. Bouquets go also to Frank Guarrera, Robert Nagy and Charles Anthony for their adept handling of the vocal chorus and the comic stage business of the masques, Ping, Pang and Pong. And if we may be forgiven for mentioning the visual attractions last, the Cecil Beaton set and costumes alone were worth the visit to the Fox.

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