Due to an indisposition of Angelos Samartzis, the part of Calaf will be performed by SeokJong Baek (21, 24 April and 3 May).

Once upon a time there was a princess with a heart as cold as ice, who put her suitors to the test with a trio of puzzles to solve. Each failed attempt was punished with death, until the arrival of Prince Calaf, who managed to solve all three puzzles and win the heart of the algid princess with ballades full of lyrical passion. This is the plot of the final and unfinished masterpiece by Giacomo Puccini, Turandot, which is set in Beijing in the time of fables ( the source is the fable of the same name by Carlo Gozzi). This was not Puccini’s first experience with exotic settings, and he artfully recreated all of the charm of that distant world, using original Chinese melodies and particular combinations of timbre, with extensive orchestral use of idiophones (bells, tubular bells, celesta, xylophones, glockenspiels). However, he died while completing the third and final act. His colleague Franco Alfano was assigned the difficult task of completing this unfinished masterpiece. The opera debuted on 25 April 1926 at the Teatro alla Scala, conducted by Arturo Toscanini who, following the last notes written by Puccini, put down his baton and refused to continue. Puccini’s death marked the end of the glorious era of Italian melodrama and the fact that his final work remained unfinished was a symbolic epitaph.

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino staging

Pictures of 2006 staging

The performance on April 21, 2024, will be broadcast live on Rai Radio 3