{"id":55095,"date":"2025-06-29T18:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=55095"},"modified":"2025-06-29T18:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:04:09","slug":"israeli-opera-turandot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=55095","title":{"rendered":"Israeli Opera: Turandot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Turandot\/Photo: Maya Eiltos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Israeli Opera announces that performances of Giacomo Puccini\u2019s Turandot will take place from June 30 \u2013 July 12, 2025. Originally scheduled to open on June 24th<\/sup>, the war put a halt to rehearsals. International opera soloists, who had come to Israel to perform in Turandot, elected to remain here for the duration, and experienced the war in Israel together with us all. Once it was possible to begin rehearsals once more, all 200 participants in the opera \u2013 soloists, musicians, dancers, chorus members, and actors, began intensive rehearsals. It is thanks to their efforts that the opera will open with only a slight delay.<\/p>\n

Directed by Andrei Serban and conducted by Dan Ettinger, Turandot is produced in association with the Royal Opera House in London. Serban\u2019s staging of Turandot was originally created for the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and has been performed at Covent Garden many times since, with the most recent revival in March 2025, to critical accolades. The revival director at the Israeli Opera is Gadi Schechter.<\/p>\n

Turandot was Puccini\u2019s final opera; he died in 1924 before finishing the third act. The music was completed by Franco Alfano and the opera premiered in 1926. The world of Turandot is one of folklore and mythology, the tale of a stern and cold-hearted princess who sets her suitors an almost impossible task: solve the riddle or be put to death. The libretto by Guiseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, draws inspiration from several adaptations of a short story by Fran\u00e7ois P\u00e9tis de la Croix published in 1722, in the volume Les Milles et un jours. His story in turn, may possibly have been inspired by Haft Peykar, a 12th<\/sup> century epic by the Persian poet Nizami, which also has a story of a princess. Puccini\u2019s Turandot is set in China, and in composing the opera he researched Chinese melodies and folk tunes, and these influenced the music of the opera. The most popular aria of the opera is Nessun Dorma, which is perhaps one of the best-known arias worldwide. It is sung by Calaf, the mysterious suitor. Unlike all those who came before him, he has succeeded in solving the riddles set by the Princess. Yet she still recoils at the thought of marrying him, so he offers her a riddle of his own. If she guesses his name by dawn, he will die, but if she cannot guess his name, she must marry him. At night, when all in the palace are asleep, Calaf sings Nessun Dorma, which, memorably ends on the word: Vincer\u00f2!<\/p>\n

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Turandot\/Photo: Maya Eiltos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Serban\u2019s staging sets the mood with elaborate Chinese costumes and masks, with choreography by Kate Flatt, and revival choreographer is Alexandra Bareggi. \u00a0Soloists in the opera are: Elena Mikhailenko and Oksana Nosatova alternating as Turandot; Mikhail Pirogov and Aleksandrs Antonenko alternating as Calaf; Alla Vasilevitsky and Yael Levita alternating as Liu; Insung Sim and Goderdzi Janelidze alternating as Timur; Oded Reich as Ping; Chuan Wang as Pang; Anthony Webb as Pong; Eitan Drori and Adi Ezra alternating as Altoum; Kirill Odintsov and Pnini Leon Grubner alternating as Mandarino.<\/p>\n

Performances will take place: Tuesday, July 1st<\/sup> at 20:00; Wednesday, July 2nd<\/sup> at 20:00; Thursday, July 3rd<\/sup> at 20:00; Friday, July 4th<\/sup> at 13:00; Sunday, July 6th<\/sup> at 19:00; Monday, July 7th<\/sup> at 18:00; Tuesday, July 8th<\/sup> at 20:00; Wednesday, July 9th<\/sup> at 19:30; Friday, July 11th<\/sup> at 13:00; Saturday, July 12th<\/sup> at 21:00.<\/p>\n

Tickets and additional information may be found on the Israeli Opera website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Israeli Opera announces that performances of Giacomo Puccini\u2019s Turandot will take place from June 30 \u2013 July 12, 2025. Originally scheduled to open on June 24th, the war put a halt to rehearsals. International opera soloists, who had come to Israel to perform in Turandot, elected to remain here for the duration, and experienced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":55097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[575,138,607],"class_list":["post-55095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dance","category-music","category-theater","tag-giacomo-puccini","tag-israeli-opera","tag-turandot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}