Turandot
The last opera by Puccini, staged posthumously and without a finale in a world premiere at La Scala, returns in the version completed by Luciano Berio, another great Italian musician of the Twentieth century. Riccardo Chailly, the new musical director of the Theatre and acknowledged expert on the melodrama of Puccini, opens the period of the Expo with this title, always a crowd pleaser. The performance, directed by Nikolaus Lehnhoff, has sublime figurative elegance, is well designed and stylized in its movements and costumes, and flooded with vibrant reds and majestic purples. The evil princess from Beijing is Nina Stemme, who won over audiences at La Scala in Wagner’s Ring, but there are high expectations for Liù played by Maria Agresta and of course for the “Nessun dorma” of Aleksandrs Antonenko.
Conductor: Riccardo Chailly
Staging: Nikolaus Lehnhoff
Sets: Raimund Bauer
Costumes: Andrea Schmidt-Futterer
Lights: Duane Schuler
Choreography: Denni Sayers
