Giacomo Puccini

Turandot

The debut in China comes in 2016, as chance would have it, with the stage direction of the very Puccini opera that is set in this country.
This new production of Turandot, which makes use of the sumptuous staging of the Carlo Felice Theater in Genoa and includes in the title role the presence of the timeless dramatic soprano Giovanna Casolla, undoubtedly among the interpreters of reference of the main character, took place at the beautiful Tianjin Grand Theater and the futuristic Harbin Grand Theater.

cast

conductor

Giuseppe Acquaviva

Turandot

Giovanna Casolla

Altoum

Giovanni Luca Failla

Timur

Elia Todisco

Calaf

Rubens Pelizzari

Liù

Daniella Carvalho

Ping

Giovanni Di Mare

Pang

Giorgio Trucco

Pong

Blagoj Nacoski

Un mandarino

Alberto Munafò Siragusa

creators

Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924) was immensely popular in his own lifetime, and his mature works remain staples in the repertory of most of the world’s opera companies. Franco Alfano (1875–1954) wrote nine operas, of which Cyrano de Bergerac (1936) is still occasionally performed today. The librettists for Turandot were the playwright Giuseppe Adami (1878–1946), who had previously worked with Puccini on Il Tabarro and La Rondine, and the journalist Renato Simoni (1875–1952).

Composer

Giacomo Puccini

Stage director

Lev Pugliese

Costumes

Sartoria Pipi Costumi Teatrali

set

Luciano Ricceri

lighting designer

Luciano Novelli

producers

Tianjin Grand Theatre, also known as the Tianjin Cultural Centre Grand Theatre, is located on the east side of the Tianjin Cultural Centre, Hexi District, Tianjin City, People’s Republic of China. It is the largest venue in the Tianjin Cultural Centre. Designed by German GMP architectural company, the theatre adopts the style of modernist architecture. The construction of the Tianjin Grand Theatre started in 2009, completed and put into use on April 22, 2012. Its total construction space amounts to 105,000 m². The theatre can seat 3,600 people, and costs 1.533 billion RMB in total.

Operas, dances, musicals, symphonies, Chinese modern dramas, and Chinese operas are all performed in the Tianjin Grand Theatre. The number of various performances staged in a year reaches 300.

The Harbin Grand Theatre or Harbin Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China. Measuring 850,349 square-foot, the theatre is designed by well-known Chinese architect agency MAD lead by Ma Yansong.
The theatre is situated in Harbin, a UNESCO-listed “City of Music”, hosting city of the renowned annual Harbin Summer Music Concert and a metropolis where China’s first ever orchestra was established. The building serves as the centerpiece of Harbin’s Cultural Islandan arts hub by the Songhua River and surrounding wetlands in suburban Harbin.

Clad entirely in white aluminium panels, the opera house swoops and curls against the bleak landscape, at times resembling a thundering snow-drift and, at others, a hyper-stylised tented yurt.