Organization

Stage director

Zuzana Gilhuus

Set designer

Conductor

Christopher Ward

Costume designer

Boris Hanečka

Lighting designer

Martin Bronec

Jaroslav Kyzlink

Chorus master

Pavel Vaněk

Dramaturge

Ondřej Hučín

Choreographer

Martin Dvorak

Singer

Soprano

Ewa Vesin

Turandot

Eliška Weissová

Bass

Jiří Sulženko

Timur

František Zahradníček

Tenor

SeokJong Baek

Calaf

Michal Lehotský

Yukiko Šrejmová-Kinjo

Liù

Marie Fajtová

Alžběta Poláčková

Baritone

Jiří Brückler

Ping

Jiří Hájek

Richard Samek

Pang

Jaroslav Březina

Martin Šrejma

Pong

Josef Moravec

Miloš Horák

A Mandarin

Roman Vocel

Jan Ježek

The Emperor Altoum

The Prince of Persia

Marek Lhotsky

National Theatre Prague

Italian

Turnadot

Prague

Czech Republic

Národní divadlo (National Theatre)

Turnadot: Turandot Puccini

Public

Czech

English

Approved

Giacomo Puccini’s final opera, Turandot, may be deemed to be the “last of the Mohicans” of the Golden Age of Italian Romantic opera. The greatest of Verdi’s heirs, the composer, however, did not get bogged down in this tradition, but went on to boldly develop and enrich it with the flavours of the new artistic styles that emerged in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. Consequently, his Turandot, written between and 1921 and 1924, does not feature many Romantic traits.

Puccini based the opera on the eponymous commedia dell’arte play by Carlo Gozzi, an author much admired by the early 20th-century avant-garde artists. The subject hails from Persia or Mongolia, whose cultures were mainly marvelled at by votaries of the decorative style, while the libretto’s story is set in medieval Beijing and foregrounds fairy-tale, or better said mythological, elements, favoured by the Symbolists. The theme of passionate love, essential for Romantic opera, is veiled in mysterious motifs of ice, fire, moon, while an erotic flame enigmatically blazes along with intense, unrelenting hatred, which we would rather expect to be present in works inspired by decadence or psychoanalysis.

Yet all that which, notwithstanding its modernism, gives Turandot the Romantic opera hallmark is Puccini’s musical idiom, which too encompasses plenty of “eccentric” facets – ranging from Oriental paraphrases, through a brutal orchestral sound, dissonant harmonies to wildly complex chorus and ensemble scenes – but what prevails is Puccini’s masterful melodic invention in the spirit of the legacy of his great Italian opera predecessors, yet utterly original – by and large, Puccinian.

Turnadot by Puccini, From (2020/2020), Directed by Zuzana Gilhuus,, Conductor Christopher Ward, Jaroslav Kyzlink, Národní divadlo (National Theatre), Prague, Czech Republic

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew

Programme, About & Synopsis

Videos

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues