Turandot

One of Giacomo Puccini's most famous operas, Turandot, is on stage at the Baths of Caracalla, for the Summer Season of the Rome Opera House, as part of the Caracalla Festival 2024.

The opera, in three acts and five scenes, with a libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni - left unfinished by Giacomo Puccini and subsequently completed by Franco Alfano, one of his students - it was performed for the first time in 1926 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. The incompleteness of the work is still the subject of discussion among scholars: in fact, there are those who maintain that Turandot remained unfinished due to the death of the author, while there are those who rather think it is due to the Master's inability to resolve the crucial crux of the drama, that is, the transformation of Princess Turandot from a cold and bloodthirsty girl into a woman in love.

At the centre of the plot is the cruel princess Turandot, who swore to give herself in marriage to anyone who could solve three of her riddles; whoever fails the test will be put to death. The young Calaf, son of the elderly deposed King, as soon as he sees Princess Turandot, falls madly in love with her and decides to undergo the test of the riddles.

On the podium, maestro Donato Renzetti conducts the Opera Theater Orchestra; in the role of the protagonist, we find two exceptional interpreters: Angela Meade and Lise Lindstrom; in the role of Calaf, Luciano Ganci, Brian Jagde and Arsen; in that of Liù, Maria Grazia Schiavo and Juliana Grigoryan. With the participation of the School of Choral Singing, directed by Ciro Visco; directed by Francesco Micheli.