TurandotNouvelle production

Giacomo Puccini wrote what would be his last opera while he – in the illness of old age– felt the same as the world that surrounded him; immersed in convulsive political vicissitudes, staggering and tottering. However in spite of that, he continued to work steadily on an opera, which unfortunately, he would leave unfinished. Based on an epic Persian poem from the XII century, Turandot gave the composer the opportunity to delve into a new universe of sound and plot. There the exoticism and eroticism, so distant in space and time, undoubtedly seduced him, as did the important character of the protagonist: the Chinese princess apparently incapable of loving, who nevertheless, finally gives up her thirst for beheading her suitors when she finds herself irremediably captivated by one of them. The transformation of the princess from being cruel with certain pathological and sadistic traits, to a vulnerable woman in love, is depicted in a ritualistic manner. In addition Puccini made a special effort to make the psychology and interior evolution of this character more understandable than ever. In the letters that the composer wrote in that period, an unmistakable anxiety to share his creative process can be read, including all its inevitable ups and downs. These letters reflect the passion for the work he was immersed in, and for the occupation to which he dedicated his whole life, which was so fully recognized, prior to his being surprised by death.

New production by the Teatro Real, in co-production with the Canadian Opera Company of Toronto, and the National Theatre of Lithuania