Franco Zeffirelli’s spectacular production returns to cinemas, with Yannick Nezet-Seguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Beubauer Music Director, conducting his first Puccini opera with the Met company.
Powerhouse soprano Christine Goerke takes on the icy title princess, alongside tenor Roberto Aronica as the unknown prince vying for her love.
Giacomo Puccini’s final opera is an epic fairy tale set in a China of legend, loosely based on a play by 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo Gozzi. Featuring a most unusual score with an astounding and innovative use of chorus and orchestra, it is still recognizably Puccini, bursting with instantly appealing melody.
The large Turandot orchestra calls for a wide variety of instruments, including alto saxophones, celesta, bass xylophone, harps, and an organ. There are several genuine Chinese themes that are integrated into the score in a suave and brilliantly original manner, including the big imperial anthem in Act II. The opera also contains moments of sheer melodic beauty in Puccini’s most lyrical vein, most notably in the tenor’s unforgettable song of triumph, “Nessun dorma,” which opens Act III.