Organization

Singer

Bass

František Zahradníček

Timur

Tenor

Jan Ježek

The Emperor Altoum

Baritone

Jiří Hájek

Ping

Jaroslav Březina

Pang

Josef Moravec

Pong

Miloš Horák

A Mandarin

Stage director

Zuzana Gilhuus

Conductor

Jaroslav Kyzlink

Costume designer

Boris Hanečka

Set designer

Choreographer

Martin Dvorak

Dramaturge

Ondřej Hučín

Chorus master

Pavel Vaněk

Soprano

Ewa Vesin

Turandot

Christopher Ward

SeokJong Baek

Calaf

Yukiko Šrejmová-Kinjo

Liù

Marek Lhotsky

The Prince of Persia

Lighting designer

Martin Bronec

Eliška Weissová

National Theatre Prague

Others

Kühn Choir of Prague

Prague National Theatre Chorus

Kühn Children's Choir

Giuseppe Finzi

Patrik Čermák

Andrea Sanguineti

Maida Hundeling

Jiří Sulženko

Michal Lehotský

Jiří Brückler

Martin Šrejma

Roman Vocel

Jan Vacík

Ondřej Koplík

Orchestra

Ópera Checa de Praga

Ballet

National Theatre Opera Ballet Prague

italų

Prague

Czech Republic

Národní divadlo (National Theatre)

Public

Rahul Solomon

čekų

anglų

Approved

Turandot Puccini

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.

Suitable for audience from 12 years.

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