Event description
One of the most beautiful performances in the world opera repertoire - Puccini's opera Turandot - returns to the LNOBT stage. Full of metaphors and allegories, the tale of the cruel princess Turandot, an epic symbolist drama, an exceptional opera in the entire oeuvre of G. Puccini. Unfortunately, the composer did not have time to finish this opera, as he died in 1924. The end of the penultimate scene of Turandot is the last music that the composer himself orchestrated: he had taken sketches of it to the Brussels clinics. Franco Alfano, a younger Italian composer, was commissioned to complete the opera from the remaining sketches. The premiere took place on 25 April 1926. The opera was performed on 25 April 25th, Milan, at the Teatro La Scala, conducted by the famous Arturo Toscanini. At the premiere, after Liu's death, the stage conductor lowered his baton and turned to the audience and said: 'This is the end of the opera; this is where Giacomo Puccini stopped working. In this case, death was stronger than art." That evening, the curtain came down after these words. Turandot was first staged at the Lithuanian Opera in 2003 (conductor Stefan Lano, director Detlef Sölter, designers Friedrich Despalmes, Monika Biegler). This time it is brought to life on our stage by conductor Modestas Pitrėnas and Robert Wilson, a director of exceptional character who is also the set and lighting designer for this production. In his productions, the director meticulously considers every detail: the movements of all the characters are meticulously calculated, the rhythms of light and action are composed to the second. His productions are laconic architectural constructions. "I am interested in artificiality. If an actor tries to be natural on stage, he is lying, because the very act of being on stage is artificial," says Wilson. "Turandot is a co-production of LNOBT, Teatro Real in Madrid, Toronto Canadian Opera Company and Houston Grand Opera. The Lithuanian audience is familiar with Wilson's 2007 production of Bach's The Passion According to John (a co-production with the Chatelet Theatre in Paris), which is deservedly regarded as one of the most artistic productions ever staged in our theatre.