Turandot
Lyrical drama in three acts and five scenes by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni after Carlo Lucio Count Gozzi
Third act completed by Franco Alfano (second version)
In Italian with German and English surtitles. Duration 2 H. 30 Min. incl. intermission after 2nd act after approx. 1 H. 20 Min. Introduction 45 min before the performance.
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Turandot
Abstract
Turandot
Giacomo Puccini’s last opera Turandot after Carlo Gozzi is set in a sinister, fairy-tale representation of China. Here, a repressive social order prevails, crystallised in Princess Turandot’s bloody ritual of vengeance: Turandot lures droves of suitors with her cold beauty and then delivers them to the executioner by means of unsolvable riddles. Until one day, the deposed king of the Tartars, Timur, his son Prince Calaf and the slave girl Liù appear. Calaf fearlessly takes on the cruel princess’s three riddles, solves them and is ultimately rewarded with her love.
Puccini’s unfinished score is striking in its sophisticated exoticism and masterful mixture of tragedy and whimsical humour. It ranges from grandiose crowd scenes to passionate pathos between Turandot and Calaf, and figures based on the commedia dell’arte, Ping, Pang and Pong. Martina Serafin, one of today’s greatest Turandots, will return to Zurich Opera House. She most recently sang the role of the cruel princess with great success at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, and previously at the Arena di Verona. Guanqun Yu, Mimì in our production of La bohème, will sing the self-sacrificing Liù, while Aleksanders Antonenko, most recently heard in Zurich as Radames in Aida and Hermann in Pique Dame, will sing Calaf. Giampaolo Bisanti will be at the rostrum.
