In Puccini’s opera, Princess Turandot  has sworn never to marry any man unless he can correctly answer her three riddles. Captivated by her beauty, the unknown Prince Calàf takes up the challenge, well aware that the untouchable ice princess has issued an ultimatum: anyone who tries and fails must die.

Giacomo Puccini created a rich, beautiful soundtrack for this darkly erotic tale, setting it in classical Beijing and weaving simple Chinese folk tunes into the orchestra’s huge sound.

The opera includes famous arias such as “Signore, ascolta”, sung by the servant Liù as she tries to stop Prince Calàf from throwing himself away in Turandot’s perilous challenge, and the Prince’s beautiful “Nessun dorma”, as he looks forward to winning the princess’s hand.

In director Andreas Homoki’s production, we do not encounter a classical, folkloric China, but instead a modern fairy tale where screens are functioning as storytellers and camera lenses represent the gaze of power. However, the potential brutal encounters between the individual and the demands of the masses are still the same. An open question

The penultimate scene in Turandot was the last Puccini wrote before travelling to a clinic in Brussels, where he died after a cancer operation in 1924. The opera was completed two years later by Franco Alfano. During the premiere at La Scala Milan in 1926, conductor Arturo Toscanini laid down his baton in the middle of the third act, turning to the public to say: “At this point, the maestro died.” This is after Liù has sung “Tu che di gel sei cinta” (“You who are begirdled by ice”) to Turandot. Immediately afterward, Liù kills herself.

We are performing the incomplete version of Turandot, which ends with the death of Liù – and of Puccini. When we do not know whether the prince and princess end up together, the story ends as an unanswered question.

Co-production with Semperoper Dresden

• Premiere discussion one week before the premiere
• Free introduction one hour before the performance

GALLERY (Photos Copyright Den Norsk opera)

CAST

FOCUS ON

Read an interview with this magnificent soprano, recently published by our magazine!

‘Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs … certainly was [Salome’s] highlight. Her vocal splendor and strength were Salome worthy and she often formed the merciless role with beautiful bel canto singing.’
– Kulturkompasset

A brilliant interpreter of the most demanding roles on the operatic and concert stage, this past season has seen Elizabeth Blancke ­ Biggs as Salome in Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, as soloist in the Verdi Requiem, also in Mexico City with Mo. Carlos Miguel Prieto, At New York’s Lincoln Center for the Rossini Stabat Mater and the Dvorak Te Deum, Verdi’s Nabucco at the Teatro Nacional di Costa Rica, and La Traviata in Argentina. Last season she was the featured artist opening the Verdi Bicentennial Concerts at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, followed by her critically acclaimed role and house debut in Strauss’ Salome at den Norske Opern in Stefan Herheim’s reprise of his Salzburg production. She then appeared under the baton of Lorin Maazel as Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West at his Castleton International Festival, and as Verdi’s Lady Macbeth at Montevideo’s Teatro Solis.

She was heard worldwide in the Sirius Satellite Radio Metropolitan Opera Broadcast of Puccini’s Tosca with tenor Marcello Giordani, as Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West under the direction of Bruno Bartoletti at Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, and as Verdi’s Lady Macbeth at Santiago, Chile’s Teatro Municipal.

Elizabeth is becoming recognized as one of the most exciting lirico-spinto sopranos on the international scene today. Critics have praised her virtuosic bel canto technique, the beauty of her voice, her pyrotechnic coloratura, and her unerring theatricality. Hailed as one of the best young Verdi singers by Placido Domingo, she appeared with him at the Washington National Opera as Giordani’s Fedora in a gala performance. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Violetta in the Zeffirelli production of Verdi’s La Traviata under the baton of Marcello Viotti with Lado Ataneli as Germont, and her Italian debut was the title role in Jonathan Miller’s production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda at Torino’s Teatro Regio, conducted by Evelino Pidó. In South America she was Abigaille in Verdi’s Nabucco for Chile’s Teatro Municipal, with Maurizio Benini. In London she appeared as Bellini’s Norma and Puccini’s Fanciulla del West for Opera Holland Park. She was seen as Minnie in La Fanciulla del West, for Florida Grand Opera with Anthony Michaels-Moore as Rance, and where one reviewer said “… [her] rapturous sound literally enveloped the stage. A flamboyant, charismatic stage presence.” She returned to FGO to sing a critically acclaimed Tosca. She reprised Abigaille in Nabucco for the Aspendos Festival at the 15,000 seat Roman amphitheater in Antalya, Turkey, and was featured in a new production of Aida at Opera Omaha and Norma for Palm Beach Opera with Ruth Ann Swenson as Adalgisa. For the New York City Opera she was seen as both Tosca and Mimì in La Bohème. Her most recent appearances in Palermo’s Teatro Massimo (La Fanciulla del West,) Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, Chile’s Teatro Municipal (Lady Macbeth) and the Welsh National Opera Gala (Fedora) were all critically acclaimed.

From 3 April to 7 May 2016

Umberto Giordano

Teatro alla Scala Orchestra
New Teatro alla Scala Production

Running Time: 2 hours intermission included

*Academy of Teatro alla Scala

Before each performance, Franco Pulcini will hold an introduction to the opera at the A. Toscanini Boxes Foyer. The meetings will start one hour before the beginning of each performance and the entrance is reserved to the audience with the ticket for the performance.

READ THE LIBRETTO

Synopsis

Act One

Florence, in the house of the Tornaquinci, at the time of Lorenzo de’ Medici.

Lorenzo de’ Medici has ordered Tornaquinci to hold a dinner in his home
with the aim of making pace between Giannetto Malespini and the Chiaramantesi
brothers, Neri and Gabriello. The first to arrive is Giannetto. He tells
Tornaquinci how Neri took his mistress, Ginevra, and then cruelly mocked
him: indeed, Neri and his brother, Gabriello, bound him in a sack, pricked
him in the backside with their daggers and threw him into the Arno. Giannetto
has only one obsession now: revenge. The Chiaramantesi brothers enter
with the exquisite Ginevra and the company sit at the table. During the
meal, it is apparent that, despite the love that unites the two brothers,
Gabriello is also in love with Ginevra. Giannetto convinces Neri, who has had
a little too much to drink, to remove his clothes and put on his armour to go
in search of a brawl in Vacchereccia, a disreputable area of Florence. Once
Neri has left fully armed, Giannetto, almost in a state of frenzy, takes Neri’s
clothes and gives them to his servant Fazio, telling him to take them home
and then go to Vacchereccia, spreading the rumour that Neri has lost his
senses.

Act One Two

Ginevra’s antechamber.

The next day, as Ginevra leaves her chamber the servants are talking of Neri
and of how the night before he has gone mad and been imprisoned.
Ginevra then tells them that that is impossible, as Neri is at that moment lying
in her bed after spending a passionate night of love with her. Suddenly,
Giannetto appears wearing a short tunic and carrying Neri’s cloak on his
arm. Pretending to be his rival, he has spent the night with Ginevra. On
learning the truth, she appears to be far from horrified, and the couple recall
their night of love. Some commotion is heard and Neri bursts in, in a fury,
cursing Giannetto. He calls Ginevra, who has locked herself in her room, but
soon the Medici men come to arrest the presumed madman and take him
away.

Act Three

In the Medici dungeon.

Giannetto and the Doctor enter. The latter says that, to bring the madman
to his senses, a meeting has been organised between Neri and the many
people he has offended in the past. Fazio then appears to put his master on
his guard against Gabriello, who is convinced that behind his brother’s presumed
madness there is the hand of Giannetto. He has also been to see
Ginevra, but to no avail: despite his insistence, she refused to open her door.
Giannetto considers how to proceed in his revenge. Servants then bring Neri
tied to a chair. During the exchange with his past victims, Neri is comforted
by Lisabetta, one of the women he seduced and betrayed. She realises that
Neri is not mad and, still in love with him, she tells him to act like an inoffensive
fool so that she can ask to take him into her custody. Giannetto enters,
sees the transformation in Neri and despairs, believing he has truly driven his
rival mad. He begs for his forgiveness, but Neri continues to behave like a
harmless idiot and ignores him. Giannetto grants Lisabetta custody of Neri,
who is unbound and consigned to her. As the couple leave the scene hand
in hand, Giannetto tells the feigned madman that he will once more spend
the night with Ginevra.

Act Four

The same scene as Act Two.

It is night and Ginevra is waiting for Giannetto; the latter has told Gabriello
that Ginevra loves him and is waiting for him in her house. Neri bursts onto
the scene. He tells Ginevra to go and wait for Giannetto in her chamber, because
he means to take the two lovers by surprise and to kill them. A sad
and mysterious song can be heard from the road. Neri enters Ginevra’s
chamber with his dagger drawn, and shortly afterwards two screams are
heard: one is that of a man, the other that of a woman. When he leaves the
chamber, Neri meets Giannetto who asks him who he thinks he has killed.
Horrified, Neri realises that, once again, he has been deceived by Giannetto,
who has tricked him into killing his beloved brother, Gabriello. The blow is
too much and this time, Neri really does become mad, leaving Giannetto
stunned and full of remorse.

Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, directed by Ole Anders Tandberg, premiered at the Oslo Opera House in autumn 2014. “One of the rawest, most suggestive scenes my senses have ever encountered in an opera,” wrote the Morgenbladet critic. When the production moved to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the German media used words like “triumph” and “sensation”.  In spring 2016 this critically acclaimed production returns to the Main House in Oslo’s Bjørvika.

Faced with a brutal, violent environment, the main character Katerina Izmailova is forced to kill. Her goal is to live with the passion for which she has so longed. Shostakovich’s music also helps to portray her as a human murderer with whom we can sympathise:

“This is the story of a strong woman’s rebellion in a male-dominated hell, which plays out against wonderful music,” says director Ole Anders Tandberg.

Katerina Lvovna Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA
Sergej_ALEXEY-KOSAREV

As well as being lyrical and melodic, Shostakovich’s music is raw, direct, humorous and coarsely satirical.

The action is set on the Norwegian coast, with 800 kilograms of fish filling the stage.

“I wanted to create a world that’s closer to us,” explains the director. “And where in Norway are we as isolated and exposed as on the Russian steppes? Well, in a tiny house in a desolate enclave surrounded by a huge sea and slippery fish.

• Free introduction one hour before the performance

GALLERY (Photos by Erik Berg)

Katerina Lvovna Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA

Katerina Lvovna Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA Sergej_ALEXEY-KOSAREV

Katerina Lvovna Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA; Boris-Timofeevich-Izmajlov_MAGNE-FREMMERLID;

Katerina Lvovna Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA Sergej_ALEXEY-KOSAREV

Prest_KETIL-HUGAAS Katerina Lvovna Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA Sergej_ALEXEY-KOSAREV Operakoret

Katerina Lvovna Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA Sergej_ALEXEY-KOSAREV

Boris-Timofeevich-Izmajlov_MAGNE-FREMMERLID; Sergej_ALEXEY-KOSAREV; Katerina-Lvovna-Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA; Operakoret

Operakoret;

Katerina Lvovna Izmajlova_SVETLANA-SOZDATELEVA; Sergej_ALEXEY-KOSAREV; Thor Inge Falch; Jens-Erik Aasbø; Operakoret

Boris-Timofeevich-Izmajlov_MAGNE-FREMMERLID

Thor Inge Falch