Turandot
Opera by Giacomo Puccini
Streaming
Available on OperaVision from
July 22, 2022, at 7PM CET
Available until
January 22, 2023, at 12PM CET
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Available on RTS on
September 8, 2022
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Preview
The production of Turandot contains certain light patterns, blinking lights and lasers that may cause reactions to a minority of individuals who are sensitive to light stimulation (photo-sensitivity). If you could be affected, we advise you to contact your doctor before coming to this performance.
Infos & Cast
About
Infos & Cast
Opera by Giacomo Puccini
Libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni after the homonymous play by Carlo Gozzi
First performed in Milan in 1926
Version of the finale by Luciano Berio, first performed in Los Angeles in 2002
Last performed at the Grand Théâtre de Genève 1996
In co-production with Tokyo Nikikai Opera
June 20, 22, 24, 29 and July 1, 2022 – 20h
June 26 and July 3, 2022 – 15h
Sung in italian with french and english subtitles
Duration: approx. 2h30 with one intermission
CAST
Musical Director Antonino Fogliani
Stage Director Daniel Kramer
Scenography, Digital and Light Art teamLab
Stage Design teamLab Architects
Costumes Kimie Nakano
Lighting Designer Simon Trottet
Choreographer Tim Claydon
Dramaturgy Stephan Müller
Choir director Alan Woodbridge
Turandot Ingela Brimberg
Altoum Chris Merrit
Timur Liang Li
Calaf Teodor Ilincăi
Liù Francesca Dotto
Ping Simone Del Savio / Alessio Arduini
Pang Sam Furness
Pong Julien Henric
Un Mandarin Michael Mofidian
Grand Théâtre de Genève Chorus
Maîtrise du Conservatoire populaire
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Sponsored by :
PARTENAIRE DE L’ART CONTEMPORAIN À L’OPÉRA
UN GÉNÉREUX DONATEUR CONSEILLÉ PAR CARIGEST SA
About
Puccini’s last opera is all about riddles. In the Forbidden City of Peking rules the Emperor of China. His unmarried daughter, the Princess Turandot, has been refusing her hand to all her princely suitors by putting them to a test. She gives them three riddles: if they do not answer them correctly, they have their heads chopped off. Scores of unlucky suitors have already failed and lost their heads in the attempt. It is now the turn of Calaf, a prince of the Tatar people, who is fascinated by Turandot’s glory. To everyone’s astonishment, he answers Turandot’s three questions correctly: first, hope; then, blood and, finally, Turandot herself. The princess is his for the taking, as promised by the Emperor. Turandot, however, is reluctant to keep the promise. Puccini broke off his composition of Turandot in the third act. The maestro died in 1924 before finishing the final duet and it was his assistant Alfano who completed the score. The first performance of the work and its world premiere at Milan’s La Scala in 1926 was a kind of requiem for Puccini. Arturo Toscanini conducted the work up to the last notes left by Puccini and then put down his baton with the words: “Here ends the master’s work. After that, he died”. Alfano’s finale became the norm in opera houses throughout the world, without ever really being completely accepted. For this reason, the musical editor Ricordi commissioned a new, less bombastic, finale from the greatest living Italian composer of that time. Luciano Berio’s finale, created in 2002, will be performed in Geneva for the first time ever in Switzerland. Daniel Kramer’s new staging transposes the old fairy tale to a futuristic world where Turandot’s magic and power hold sway. In a dystopian game show, reminiscent of Hunger Games, the regime of the woman who refuses to become one institutes a surveillance state in which men are culled and the reproduction and breeding of the human species is conducted in a mechanical facility. The US-born director harks back to the archaic essentials of the battle between the sexes. For the first time in their career, the famous international art collective teamLab will be working extensively on the scenography of an opera, using state-of-the-art visual technologies never before been seen on an opera stage. teamLab’s light creations have been on show all over the world; they create an immersive artistic experience that absorbs and enthrals the audience in its avant-gardist visual flux. After his impressive Grand Théâtre début with Aida during the 2019-2020 and in La Cenerentola last season, which replaced this production of Turandot, impossible to perform under COVID-19 measures, Antonino Fogliani a true master of the Italian repertoire, is back with his baton. After performing Elektra, the dramatic voice par excellence of Ingela Brimberg returns as icy Princess Turandot. The soprano Francesca Dotto will be the innocent voice of the luminous Liú.
Turandot in the making
Introduction
Turandot at La Plage
Check out all the various events connected with the production.
45 minutes avant le spectacle
45 minutes before the bells call you into the house, it’s time to refresh your memory and go back to the beginnings of the opera: we offer a brief introduction to remind you what the work is all about and what kind of magical, apocalyptic, critical or hyper-realistic worlds the people behind the production have in store for you. Lickety-split, there’s just enough time to grab some bubbly before you take your seats under the star-studded ceiling of a thousand and one operas!
45 minutes before each performance
Free admittance with performance tickets
Foyer of the GTG
Thursday, June 9 at 6:30PM
About Turandot
C’est l’histoire d’une princesse chinoise, d’un prince tartare et d’une esclave.
C’est l’histoire d’une soprano, d’une basse et d’une autre soprano.
(L’opéra, c’est toujours des histoires compliquées à raconter…)
C’est l’histoire d’une vaudoise, d’un musicologue et d’une psychologue qui cherchent à décoder un message crypté au milieu de l’opéra Turandot. Leurs “baboleries” musicologiques se poursuivent autour d’un jeu, mais l’affaire se corse quand les autres personnages de l’opéra s’incrustent dans le débat, essayant de comprendre à leur tour ce que Puccini a voulu leur faire dire.
Une joyeuse manière de réconcilier les explications musicologiques et l’imagination poétique.
Une proposition de David Christoffel et Anya Leveillé (Espace 2, RTS).
En partenariat avec la Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève et l’Unité de musicologie de l’Université de Genève, dans le cadre du séminaire d’initiation à la médiation musicale de Nancy Rieben.
Etudiant·e·s :
Barbara Barandun, Christophe Bitar, Emma Delannoy, Juliette Larmagnac, Jennifer Legrand, Camille Peron, Matthieu Will
Interventions musicales :
Xavier Dami (piano), Francesca Dotto (soprano)
Thursday, June 9, 2022
At 6:30PM
Entrance fee CHF 25 (first drink included)
In the foyer of the GTG
Wednesday, June 15 at 6:30PM
La cinquième énigme de Turandot, presented by Sandro Cometta
Si quatre sont les énigmes proposées et résolues dans le livret par les personnages principaux de l’opéra, l’interruption de la partition, deux scènes avant la fin, par leur créateur, reste toujours sans réponse. Turandot peut-il avoir une fin ?
Wednesday, June 15
At 6:30PM
At the Théâtre de l’Espérance
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Saturday, June 18 at 11AM
Singing / choral workshop with Maud Bessard Morandas about Turandot
For everyone from 10 years old.
Children must be accompanied by an adult participating in the workshop.
Three great trials are to be crossed to reach the love of the princess Turandot! Come and discover Puccini’s emblematic work by (re)discovering singing, corporal and collective improvisation in the foyer of the Grand Théâtre de Genève, with the soprano and choir director, Maud Bessard-Morandas.
This workshop is open to all, music lovers, beginners or experts!
Saturday, June 18 2022
At 11AM
Entry CHF 15.–
CHF 10.– (up to 12 years old)
At the GTG
Friday, June 24 at 9PM
To celebrate the Fête de la Musique together with the Grand Théâtre, we’re inviting you to sit with us under the stars. Not those that sparkle by the hundreds in Jacek Stryjenski’s gold and silver ceiling in our auditorium, the real ones that await us al fresco, as night starts falling on the parc des Eaux-Vives. Come and experience, free of charge, on a giant screen, our production of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot on Friday 24th June at 9 PM.
Kick off your shoes and spend an evening in the park, with your toes in the grass and Puccini’s music in your ears. Lake Geneva and the evening sky are in the background and on screen, a film version of Puccini’s beloved opera, conducted by Antonino Fogliani and staged by Daniel Kramer.
This might take some back to another summer evening at parc des Eaux-Vives, back in 1998, with a memorable outdoor cinema projection of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Save the date!
Screening of Turandot
Friday, June 24 2022 at 9PM
Free entrance
Parc des Eaux-Vives
Saturday, June 25
«Early Late Night» : Workshops, films, performances & DJ set in partnership with Electron Festival
For its 3rd and last Late Night of the season, the Grand Théâtre teams up with Electron Festival and the Fête de la musique and becomes one of its main destinations: Quizoperas workshops for families (10am and 12:30pm), film screenings on the history of electronic music (11am to 9pm), live performances (3pm to 10pm at the Blue Bar) with Thierry Charollais (ambient), Theseshapes (electro tech), L A Flyte (electro + vocals), Haig Gragian (Armenian electro), LyOsun (electro pop), Mavro (stellar electronica), and Boodaman (modular electro). At 11pm, the Wolly DJs collective will take place on the balcony of the Grand Théâtre, place de Neuve, to entertain the crowd until 1am.
Saturday, June 25 from 10am to 1am
Free entrance
Grand Théâtre de Genève
> MORE INFOS
Wednesday, June 29
Haven’t you ever wondered what it’s like on the other side, when the curtain falls on a performance? How does all the technical machinery work? What do the stagehands have to do to get things back into working order? Or maybe just bump into one of the stars of the show?
So let us raise the curtain on all this for you. With every production, we give our patrons an opportunity to come backstage with us, raise their eyes to the flies and take a good look at what’s behind the sets. It may be dark in the wings but there’s a whole lot going on there! And because it’s a really busy place, we can’t really do this more than once per performance run. You will need to book your visit beforehand, so don’t delay!
A member of the theatre staff who can answer all your questions and show you some of the very impressive features of our opera house takes you backstage for free.
After the June 29 performance, a member of the theatre staff who can answer all your questions and show you some of the very impressive features of our opera house takes you backstage for free.
The “En coulisse” tour lasts about 20 minutes, starts 15 minutes after the performance, is free of charge on prior reservation with our box office service by email [email protected].
2021-2022 Season
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Photo credits
Turandot © GTG / Magali Dougados