The playbill for the 2024 opera season celebrates the centenary of Giacomo Puccini's death with the first performance on the programme, Turandot, the composer's last masterpiece inspired by Gasparo Gozzi's oriental fairy tale in the staging imagined by Giuseppe Frigeni, who signs the direction, scenes, lights and choreography.
The show is conducted by Marco Guidarini on the podium of the Orchestra dell'Emilia-Romagna Arturo Toscanini, with the Lyric Choir of Modena and the Municipal Theatre of Piacenza.
The director has imagined a Turandot where 'it is the music that dictates the direction. And opera is not theatre with music, but music that becomes theatre, imposing its own dramatic rhythms and dimensions'.
For the director, Turandot, more than a love story, is 'the rise of the social ambition of the arrogant Calaf, revealing macho cynicism'.
On stage in the main roles France Dariz (Turandot), Mikheil Sheshaberidze (Calaf), Jaquelina Livieri (Liù), Fabio Previati (Ping), Saverio Pugliese (Pang), Matteo Mezzaro (Pong), Giacomo Prestia (Timur), Raffaele Feo (Altoum).