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Turandot for Children
GIUSEPPE PENNISI investigates
a Puccini production with
one hundred and fifty performances in twelve months
Many opera goers will be surprised to learn that, this season, one single production of Giacomo Puccini's well-known Turandot is scheduled for one hundred and fifty performances over about twelve months. It is a joint effort of the Associazione Lirica di Como (AsLiCo) with its lovely Teatro Sociale, the world famous Teatro Liceu of Barcelona, and of the elegant Theater Magdeburg, with a catchment area from Hanover to Leipzig. Readers would be even more astonished to learn that this Turandot production is especially tailored for children. As mentioned on other occasions (eg 'Far from Traditional', 27 July 2015), even though the libretto indicates that the action is 'in China at the time of the fairy tales', the opera is far from a fairy tale: it is a crude demonstration of power and cruelty versus innocence, not an abstract joke like in Busoni's opera of the same title, drawn from the same eighteenth century play by Carlo Gozzi...
Copyright © 22 May 2016
Giuseppe Pennisi,
Rome, Italy
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