Turandot

• 

  Turandot – Catherine Foster als Turandot

• 

  Giacomo Puccini: Turandot (2023) – Ruth Tromboukis

• 

  Turandot – Der Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin im ersten Akt von TURANDOT. Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – u. a. Gerard Farreras als Timur, Martin Muehle als Calaf Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Joel Allison als Ping, Gideon Poppe als Pang, Ya-Chung Huang als Pong

• 

  Turandot – Joel Allison als Ping, Gideon Poppe als Pang, Ya-Chung Huang als Pong

• 

  Turandot – Gerard Farreras als Timur, Maria Motolygina als Liù, Martin Muehle als Calaf Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Der Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin

• 

  Turandot – Gerard Farreras als Timur, Maria Motolygina als Liù, Ya-Chung Huang als Pong, Joel Allison als Ping, Martin Muehle als Calaf Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Martin Muehle als Calaf, Gideon Poppe als Pang, Joel Allison als Ping, Ya-Chung Huang als Pong Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Martin Muehle als Calaf, Gerard Farreras als Timur, Maria Motolygina als Liù; dahinter Gideon Poppe als Pang Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin

• 

  Turandot – Ya-Chung Huang als Pong, Gideon Poppe als Pang, Joel Allison als Ping

• 

  Turandot – u. a. Catherine Foster als Turandot

• 

  Turandot – Martin Muehle als Calaf, Catherine Foster als Turandot

• 

  Turandot – u. a. Catherine Foster als Turandot, Martin Muehle als Calaf Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Martin Muehle als Calaf, Catherine Foster als Turandot, der Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin

• 

  Turandot – Catherine Foster als Turandot, Martin Muehle als Calaf, Clemens Bieber als Altoum Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Martin Muehle als Calaf

• 

  Turandot – Gideon Poppe als Pang, Ya-Chung Huang als Pong, Joel Allison als Ping, Catherine Foster als Turandot Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Martin Muehle als Calaf, Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin

• 

  Turandot – u. a. Maria Motolygina als Liù, Martin Muehle als Calaf

• 

  Turandot – Catherine Foster als Turandot, Martin Muehle als Calaf, Gerard Farreras als Timur Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Catherine Foster als Turandot, Martin Muehle als Calaf Bettina Stöß

• 

  Turandot – Catherine Foster als Turandot, Martin Muehle als Calaf, Clemens Bieber als Altoum

• 

  Turandot – Catherine Foster als Turandot, Martin Muehle als Calaf, Joel Allison als Ping, Gideon Poppe als Pang, Ya-Chung Huang als Pong Bettina Stöß

In his last opera, which was left unfinished, Puccini explored the aesthetics of the new mass medium of film. Lorenzo Fioroni's production builds a bridge between the oppressed but sensation-seeking Chinese opera-going public and the consumers of the modern media world ... Conductor: Daniel Carter; Director: Lorenzo Fioroni; With Catherine Foster, Angelo Villari / SeokJong Baek, Nina Solodovnikova / Maria Motolygina, Michael Bachtadze, Kangyoon Shine Lee, Thomas Cilluffo et al.
About the workA nation is cowed by its princess. Turandot, beautiful and fascinating representative of a royal dynasty, presides over a gruesome ritual: only her marriage to a suitor will bring an end to the violence, but no would-be bridegroom has yet managed to solve the riddles. The same old spectacle plays out, ending in yet another execution, until Calaf, the son of a deposed ruler from a foreign land, unexpectedly answers the riddles correctly. He then turns the tables on Turandot, forcing her to answer his own question if she wants to steal out of her obligation. Puccini’s times are changing rapidly, the art world is going through drastic transformation and new, abstract forms are being coined to reflect modern-day experience. And the composer, in his early 60s, is again trying to break new ground.

Puccini spent the last four years of his life working on TURANDOT, based on a fairy tale by Carlo Gozzi [1762]. The score was his richest and altogether most dissonant. Far from being the soundtrack to a cutesy picture of a doll-like China, the exotic music provided the backdrop to a world suffused in an atmosphere of unimaginable cruelty. Try as he might, Puccini never did settle on a resolution to his drama. The composer who was ever leery of happy endings never managed to escape from the dead-end that he’d created for himself through Liù’s sacrifice and the imminent pairing of Turandot and Calaf. The question of how the two might ever discover some common ground remained unanswered. Puccini was variously intrigued and repelled by the idea of presenting of an all-encompassing love as a means to redemption in the face of everything that speaks against it – and could not bring himself to paint such a utopia. He left only a fragment behind when he died and the Ricordi publishing house brought in the composer Franco Alfano to complete the opera, based on sketches left behind by Puccini.

About the productionLorenzo Fioroni’s production sets the action of the story in a fairy-tale realm of indeterminable period but one which nonetheless is reminiscent of modern-day dictatorships. The riddle and execution scenes are dwelt on and give the impression that violence plays a ritualistic, quasi-religious role. Pitted against this is the desire, expressed repeatedly by the elite and the plebs, to end the oppression and see all groups reconciled. It is on this taut spectrum between violent rule and a yearning for love that Calaf and Turandot circle each other. Yet instead of pouring oil on troubled waters, the new couple usher in a new era of terror.

Fioroni rummages in the psychologies of the main protagonists and discovers in both a marked tendency towards violence. Calaf, too, is the scion of a former despot and, by looking on as Liù sacrifices herself for him, shows that saving face and achieving his goals is more important to him than saving lives. And it is this area of unscrupulous overlap that makes his final pact with Turandot plausible. And so it goes: their unfolding passion is reflected not in an overturning of the brutal system but in a continuation of tyranny.

Artists/Collaborators: Daniel Carter (Musikalische Leitung), Lorenzo Fioroni (Inszenierung), Paul Zoller (Bühne), Katharina Gault (Kostüme), Jeremy Bines (Chöre), Christian Lindhorst (Kinderchor), Catherine Foster (Turandot), Burkhard Ulrich (Altoum), Angelo Villari (Calaf), Nina Solodovnikova (Liù), Volodymyr Morozov (Timur), Michael Bachtadze (Ping), Kangyoon Shine Lee (Pang), Thomas Cilluffo (Pong), Byung Gil Kim (Ein Mandarin), Gyumi Park (Erste Damenstimme), Asahi Wada (Zweite Damenstimme), Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Chöre), Kinderchor der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Chöre), Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin (Orchester)

Pre-performance lecture (in German): 45 minutes prior to each performance

Next date:

• Date Friday, 05/June/2026 19:30 (2 more dates)
• Venue Deutsche Oper Berlin
• Address Bismarckstraße 35, 10627 Berlin-Charlottenburg