One of opera's greatest hits; filled with breathtaking pageantry.

 

Puccini's spectacular masterpiece features one of the most profoundly beautiful scores in all of opera.

 

In Ancient Peking, the beautiful, icy Princess Turandot announces that she will marry the man who can solve her three riddles, but gravely punish those who cannot. Heads roll until the arrival of a clever prince who is determined to win over the princess or die to try. He solves her trio of challenges and then offers Turandot his life if she can solve the riddle of his name. Will true love be enough to soften the vengeful princess' heart?

 

 

Turandot is Puccini’s final opera (unfinished at his death) and perhaps as a result, it is by far and away his most musically adventurous.

 

It’s an opera that blends epic chorus passages with some brilliantly intimate moments. Indeed the chorus plays a much more significant role than in Puccini’s other operas, acting as an onstage witness to well over half of the action. The opening is a powerful series of five chords, said to musically depict an executioner’s axe falling, and that hair-raising effect is spectacularly well maintained throughout.

 

 

The story originates in a French collection of fairy tales by François Pétis de la Croix “Les mille et un jours” translated into English as “The thousand and one days”. 

 

Performance: Shanghai Opera House

 

Composer: Giacomo Puccini

Librettist: Giuseppe Adami, Renato Simoni

Conductor: Renato Palumbo

Director: Roberto Andò

Set/Lighting Designer: Gianni Carluccio

Costume Designer: Francesca Sartori, Elisabetta Antico

Visual Designer: Luca Scarzella

Assistant Director: Boris Stetka