Turandot is on at QPAC’S Lyric Theatre for six performances only.
Opera Queensland’s production of Turandot opens on Saturday, 18 October at the Lyric Theatre for a six-performance season.
This exotic interpretation of Puccini’s final masterpiece comes from Graeme Murphy, one of Australia’s boldest and most respected choreographers and directors. Here, Director Kim Walker will revive Murphy’s iconic production which was first mounted in 1990.
The Forbidden City of Peking will come alive when 120 artists step onto the Lyric Theatre stage. Collectively, the cast includes 11 principal singers, an adult chorus of 65, a children’s chorus of 20, and 24 dancers and actors. They will be accompanied by 85 members of The Queensland Orchestra in the pit under the skilled baton of Maestro Peter Robinson.
The production’s spectacular sets and costumes are matched only by Puccini’s glorious score which features the achingly beautiful Nessun dorma, one of the most recognised and recorded arias in the operatic canon.
“The sheer scale of orchestral writing in Turandot is like no other opera,” said Robinson. “If I could only conduct the work of one composer in my life, I would have to choose Puccini.”
Turandot is the quintessential ‘ice princess’. She coldly scorns any potential suitor who accepts her challenge of answering three impossible riddles. To fail in the task means certain death. To succeed, secures her hand in marriage.
When Calaf, the young Prince of Tartary, sees the dazzlingly beautiful Turandot, he instantly falls in love and declares himself a potential suitor. Turandot accepts his challenge, convinced that he will be just another prince led to the executioner.
Opera Queensland welcomes back acclaimed American soprano Cynthia Makris (last seen in Brisbane as Abigaille in Nabucco) to perform the role of Princess Turandot. Making his Australian debut, Ukrainian tenor Marian Talaba, from the Vienna State Opera, will perform the role of Prince Calaf. They will be joined by Hye Seoung Kwon as Liù, Gennadi Dubinsky as Timur and Lucas de Jong, Bernard Hull and Virgilio Marino in the roles of the troublesome trio Ping, Pang and Pong respectively.
Puccini began working on Turandot in 1920. It was a long, slow process because of his poor health. By March 1924, he had composed everything up to the final duet. On 29 November of the same year, he died after suffering a heart attack during treatment for throat cancer. Turandot was his final work and remained unfinished at the time of his death. It was later completed by Franco Alfano.
The opera eventually made its debut on 25 April, 1926 at La Scala in Milan under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. Out of respect to the composer, Toscanini stopped the performance at the point when Liù’s body is carried off the stage explaining to the audience that it was here that the maestro died. He refused to include Alfano’s additions to the opera, which are now normally included.
Turandot plays at QPAC’S Lyric Theatre on 18, 23, 25, 28, 30 October and 1 November, 2008.
