The world-class ensemble that Philipp Stölzl has assembled for his recent Turandot of the work at the Staatsoper Berlin stars Elena Pankratova, Aida Garifullina, Siegfried Jerusalem, and René Pape. At the rostrum, moreover, will be grand maestro Zubin Mehta. Stream is available from 15 October.
Any suitor wishing to marry Turandot first has to solve three riddles. It is a high-stakes guessing game, since those who fail are condemned to death. This dark and fantastical tale of the choosy Chinese princess from whom the opera takes its name unfolds a tragic allure all its own.
Puccini had been grappling with Carlo Gozzi’s fairy-tale since 1920 and for dramatic reasons had already added the figure of the slave girl Liù as an emotional counterweight for Turandot. The opera derives its „Chinese sound” in no small part from the music box given to Puccini by his friend, Baron Fassini, the former Italian consul in China. Among its tunes was the „Hymn of the Chinese Emperor”, which Puccini worked into the Finale of Act 2.
The composer fell ill with cancer in early 1924 and died on 29 November before being able to complete his work. It therefore fell to the Italian composer Franco Alfano to finish it according to Puccini’s sketches. The premiere performance at La Scala Milan in 1926 was conducted by Arturo Toscanini.
Philipp Stölzl is one of the world’s most famous opera, film, and theatre directors – and also one of its most versatile, since he can stage works in any format, from Kammerspiel to cinemascope. The surrealistic visual idiom that he developed for „Turandot” at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden was inspired by „Dark Romanticism”. Positioned centre stage is a huge doll that can move and even metamorphose, representing now the palace and now – monstrously overdrawn – the figure of cruel Turandot herself.
Recording from the Staatsoper Unter den Linden on 18 June 2022.
