A dictatorship based on image and technology, an icy princess but victim of sexual abuse: the Opéra du Rhin transposes Puccini’s “Turandot” into a modern and oppressive China. To discover in Strasbourg then in Mulhouse until July 4th.
Nearly a hundred years after the death of the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, the director Emmanuelle Bastet presents until June 20 at the Opéra national du Rhin, a contemporary reinterpretation of his last unfinished opera Turandot. It is played in its complete form, that is to say with the last two scenes composed in 1926 by Franco Alfano. It will also be presented in Mulhouse on July 2 and 4, then in Dijon next season.
Turandot, Puccini’s last opera takes place in Beijing, at the foot of the Forbidden City, in an ancestral China where the Emperor’s daughter, the cruel Princess Turandot, imposes a challenge on her suitors: find the answer to three enigmas. The winner will have his hand, the many losers will be punished with death. A foreign prince, Calaf, will manage to find the answers. “Everyone thinks Turandot is an icy princess, but she’s also full of despair, sadness and dread” explains Elisabeth Teige, the Norwegian interpreter of the heroine. “As a singer, I have to convey these emotions in my voice and in my attitude”.
Surveillance and oppression
Transposed to the 21st century, the drama presented at the Opéra National du Rhin has been updated. “The video here is not only scenographic, it is also dramaturgical. It is also about talking about this way of manipulating and enslaving crowds through images and screens” specifies the director Emmanuelle Bastet.
In red scarves, the children of the ONR master’s camp portray very realistic communist pioneers, in a choreography that seems to come straight out of the Cultural Revolution. “The presence of the children is provided for by the score, it was Puccini’s will” explains the director of the Opéra du Rhin, Alain Perroux.
The issue of sexual violence
Always with a concern for modernity, the question of consent is at the heart of the matter here. Having managed to solve the riddles, Calaf demands Turandot’s hand and imposes a kiss on him, presented here as a scene of rape. Staging “wanted to show that there was something very violent in this kiss”comments Alain Perroux to AFP. “It’s true that today these forced kisses raise much more questions than at the time of Puccini, and with good reason: there is the question of consent that arises”, he notes. Turandot is shocked, “especially since she had invented this whole riddle story in memory of the rape of her ancestor. It’s as if she was reliving this nightmare”.
Unusually, the opera is performed with the full finale by Franco Alfano, who was entrusted with the end of Turandot, Puccini having died before having composed the last two scenes. This end had been planed by the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini.
Turandot by Giacomo Puccini – Opera in 3 acts – Until June 20 in Strasbourg then July 2 and 4 at the Mulhouse opera house.