Turandot

In the court of the beautiful and distant Princess Turandot, all suitors who fail to solve the three riddles posed by the princess are killed mercilessly. Then, the mysterious Prince Calaf arrives, knowing the right answer…

Turandot, Giacomo Puccini’s final opera, can be described as a Chinoiserie in Three Acts – the interpretation and imitation of Chinese aesthetics, literature, and music by an Italian composer who never travelled to the Far East. In the mid-18th century, Western European culture was pervaded by the phenomenon of Orientalism – an aesthetic longing for another way of being.

The texture of Turandot’s score has a richness of instrumental and harmonic colour. The ever-changing layers of Puccini’s music reveal each of the characters in their various ambiguities and discords, as well as the human need to love and to be loved. Giorgio Madia strives to offer an equally dramatic staging for this grandiose fairytale and Puccini’s powerful music, while also paying homage to the work’s historical context.

Scenically, Turandot is one of the most challenging Italian operas to produce effectively. Mass scenes with choir and ballet fill the stage, at the same time there is a need to convey the story and emphasize the musical composition. Puccini’s Turandot is rich in the music, in the drama, in the aesthetic – this Italian composer knew how to conceive his work for the operatic stage to provide the audience with a unique experience. I will wholly embrace this fairytale to unfold the very special world and poetry of this beautiful opera.

– Giorgio Madia, director and choreographer