Arrangement from Tuesday 28 May to Monday 3 June 2024,
5 nights
When Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels in November 1924 as a result of cancer, his composition of "Turandot" was still unfinished. The composer Franco Alfano (1876-1954) was then commissioned to complete the opera. At the premiere at the Teatro alla Scala, the work was performed as a homage to Puccini only up to Liù’s death aria. The conductor Arturo Toscanini addressed the audience at this point: "Here the opera ends, because this is where the master died"."Turandot" can be regarded as the culmination of Puccini’s creative output, since it perfectly combines all four elements that characterize his incomparable style: The slave Liù symbolizes the lyrical-sentimental element, the pair Turandot/Kalaf the heroic, while the three courtiers stand for the comic-grotesque. The exotic element is achieved by using authentic Chinese sages and pentatonic motifs.Compared to his other works, "Turandot" has greater echoes of contemporary musical trends, as well as dissonances, polytonal effects and, for the traditionally trained listener, irritating effects in singing and orchestration, making it - compared to his earlier operas - long less popular with the audience. In the meantime, however, Puccini’s last work has established itself on the opera stages. In it, his life’s work is bundled and gives room for speculation as to what the composer’s further musical development might have been like.
Turandot♪ - G. Puccini, the 29
Marco Armiliato - Franco Zeffirelli
Elena Pankratova, Olga Kulchynska, SeokJong Baek, Soloman Howard
Metropolitan Opera
Orfeo ed Euridice - C. W. Gluck, the 30
Christian Curnyn - Mark Morris
Ying Fang, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Elena Villalón
Metropolitan Opera
The Hours - K. Puts, the 31
Kensho Watanabe - Phelim McDermott
Renée Fleming
American soprano Renée Fleming was born on February 14, 1959 in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Both of her parents are music teachers. Her vocal studies take place at the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York in Potsdam. At that time, Renée Fleming, was divided between classical and jazz. She eventually decided on the lyrical art, which she continued to learn at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Renée Fleming then studied in Europe, notably with Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, then returned to New York to the Juilliard School of Music. Her first major professional lyrical role took place at the Salzburg Land Theater in 1986, where she sang Konstanze in Mozart’s The Kidnapping. One of her favorite roles is the title role of Dvorak’s Rusalka. Her familiarity with Czech, a language spoken by her grandparents, gives her an ease with the text that few performers in the role can boast.
Renée Fleming♪, Kelli O’Hara,
Joyce DiDonato
Joyce DiDonato is an American opera singer in the vocal register mezzo-soprano. Born in Kansas in 1969, she studied at the Acadamy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and has sung at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and all the major world-class opera houses and festivals. DiDonato is one of the leading classical singers of her time. Her broad repertoire ranges from Handel, Mozart and Rossini to Richard Strauss and composers of contemporary operas.The mezzo-soprano first gained international attention in 1998 with her engagement as Angelina in ´La Cenerentola` by Rossini at the Teatro alla Scala. She is the recipient of major awards, such as the Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Solo in 2012.Away from the stage, DiDonato is involved in many social projects. Or as she puts it herself, ´Since the beginning of my unexpected career, I’ve been looking for ways to bring the transformative, healing power of music to as many people as possible - whether on stage, in prisons, refugee camps or in the classroom.`
Joyce DiDonato♪, William Burden, Sean Panikkar, Kyle Ketelsen
Metropolitan Opera