Racism in opera – the performances of Turandot

The performances of Turandot

Reading time: 7 minutes.

Turandot’s exoticism

Already in 1926, the very first performance of Turandot took place, conducted by the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini (1867 – 1957) at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. This opera is considered the last great opera in the bel canto tradition of the nineteenth century. Although operas were written after Turandot by composers such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Britten, Turandot is considered the final piece of a musical stylistic period. The opera contains some modern elements, but remains firmly rooted in the vocal and musical traditions that were also peculiar to Puccini.

Today, Turandot is criticized for its depiction of the Far East. Although there was curiosity about Eastern cultures, Giacomo Puccini never set foot in China. The same goes for Franco Alfano, who completed the opera after Puccini’s death in 1924. The exotic and mostly simplified depiction of China reflects Western ideas rather than an accurate representation of the culture. The cultural views of the time were also simply very different from the nuanced approach we would expect today.

 

Modern versions of Turandot

So it wasn’t until 1995 that Turandot would be staged in Beijing, with the major adjustment, by the way, that the play is not set in China, but in a mythical kingdom in Central Asia. A few years after this first performance, in 1997, conductor Zubin Mehta (b. 1936) led a remarkable production called Turandot in the Forbidden City, directed by famed Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (b. 1950). The media extravaganza brought the opera to the heart of China. When Beijing opened the new “National Center for the Performing Arts,” the gigantic opera house also known as “The Giant Egg,” in 2008, they again chose Turandot as the grand opening performance. With its theatrical nature, the opera was seen as the only work that could match the monumentality of the new center.

The production in Taipei, in turn, brought contemporary political overtones. This opera depicted Princess Turandot as a character fixated on avenging the rape and murder of a distant ancestor. This dark theme played on the worst nightmare of young, Chinese women and subtly referenced the events of 2014, when the student protests took place in Hong Kong against increasing Chinese influence (better known as “the Umbrella Movement”). Moreover, this interpretation clearly demonstrated how opera, and theater in general, can be intertwined with current political and social issues.

In Europe, Turandot still receives much attention today. In 2023 at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, American director Robert Wilson (b. 1941) tried to find a new approach to the problematic cultural aspects of Turandot. By focusing heavily on visual and aesthetic elements, Wilson sought to divert attention from the controversial and stereotypical depictions of China, thus making the opera more accessible to a contemporary audience.

 

A photo from the performance of Robert Wilson’s Turandot (Madrid). Source:
https://robertwilson.com/turandot
.

 

Reflection versus fairy tale

I myself saw Turandot at the Monnaie Theatre in Brussels, and although I do not have an Asian background, I took no offense to the performance. To me, it felt like a fairy tale – and like many fairy tales, they are often improbable and cruel. It would not occur to anyone, for example, to consider Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (b. 1936) an attack on German culture. Similarly, Turandot need not necessarily be understood as a negative representation of Chinese culture.

It is also important not to forget the historical context in which Puccini composed this opera. Turandot was first performed in 1926, a time when cultural attitudes were very different from today. Understanding this context helps to put the opera in a broader perspective and offers insight into why Puccini created the work in this way.

 

Read more:

Link to English-language article on Turandot, highlighting themes of cultural representation and the impact of Orientalist imagery. Accessed 27/10/2024.

Link to an English-language article from 2020 , on the complex history and meanings of Puccini’s opera in both Chinese culture and Western interpretations. Accessed 27/10/2024.

Link to English-language article on Puccini’s two best-known works, at artdaily.com. Accessed October 27, 2024.

VRT NWS article on the performance of Turandot at La Monnaie in Brussels. Accessed 27/10/2024.

Robert Wilson’s 2023 version of Turandot on YouTube. Accessed 27/11/2024.

Photo: Ewa Vesin as Princess Turandot at La Monnaie in Brussels. Photo: Matthias Baus. Source:
www.operamagazine.nl
.

---