The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died of a heart attack on Nov. 29, 1924 without finishing his newest opera “Turandot.” The piece was later finished by Franco Alfano, but remains a curiosity in the opera world because of the question of its ending.
Now, exactly 100 years after the premiere of “Turandot” on April 25, 1926, the Atlanta Opera is presenting an entirely new staging of Puccini’s work, setting aside Alfano’s ending and offering a new interpretation using mostly Puccini’s own music. “Turandot” is scheduled for four performances beginning April 25 at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.
“This piece is absolutely a masterpiece,” said Atlanta Opera Director Tomer Zvulun in a press conference. “But it is a flawed masterpiece on a few levels.”
“Turandot” follows Prince Calaf (Piero Pretti) and his quest to marry the imperial Princess Turandot (Angela Meade), who subjects all of her suitors to three riddles, beheading those who cannot find the answers. When Calaf succeeds, he offers her the chance to escape his marriage – she just has to discover what his name is before dawn.
According to Zvulun, over the years multiple people have tried to solve the riddle of the ending of “Turandot.” On the original opening night, the conductor, Arturo Toscanini, famously stopped the show in the middle of Act III because that’s where Puccini had stopped writing. In addition to Alfano’s ending, which features Turandot falling in love with Calaf after a kiss, other composers have tried their hand at solving the riddle.
“In all cases, with those endings, there’s a simple problem,” Zvulun said. “And that is that those composers, who may be wonderful, have one problem. They’re not Puccini.”
In order to try and solve that problem, Zvulun built on an idea that originally came from production designer Erhard Rom. The Atlanta Opera production will move the aria “In questa reggia” from the middle of Act II to the end of Act III. Zvulun said in the original construction, he feels the aria is out of place.
“In my mind, it’s always been a bit of a problem with Act II, because it stops the action,” he said.
This new version places the song at the end of Act III, right after one of the opera’s most heroic characters, the maid Liù (Juliana Grigoryan), has died by suicide. In this new version, Turandot will sing the aria over Liù’s body as she remembers her past, connecting her own trauma to the trauma she has inflicted on others.
Iván López Reynoso, the principal conductor of the Atlanta Opera, said moving the aria offers a new perspective on Turandot’s character.
“It’s incredible how ‘In questa reggia’ now has a very different dramatic meaning with this new position in the piece,” he said. “Fortunately, the harmonies work perfectly together.”
In restructuring the piece, the company will rid “Turandot” of all but five bars of Alfano’s music. The restructuring also means that the opera will end not with Liù, but with its title character.
“The main character of ‘Turandot’ remains Turandot,” Reynoso said. “But also the main protagonist of the evening will be Giacomo Puccini.”
The production’s ending is not the only change the opera plans to make to the piece. The original opera is set in China and is steeped in orientalism (for example, three central characters are named Ping, Pang, and Pong). The Atlanta Opera’s new production takes place in more of a fairytale land, its design drawing on the geometric look of German Bauhaus design and the game of chess.
“One of the things that we decided as a design team is to not double down on the idea of depicting … China, but rather approach the piece as a fairytale that focuses on the hierarchy,” Zvulun said. “This is a society that is ruled by a ruthless leader and has no checks and balances.”
He said that along with chess and Bauhaus design, the Rubik’s cube and the Netflix television show “Squid Games” were influences on the design. In connection to Bauhaus, The Atlanta Opera will present a panel discussion on April 25 between the show’s designers and the lead curator of the High Museum to discuss the influence of art on this production of “Turandot,” said Zvulun.
Tickets for “Turandot” can be purchased on the Atlanta Opera’s website.
