Turandot directed by Ai Weiwei will make its debut at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome in March 2020

Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, scheduled to be performed at theTeatro dell’Opera in Rome in March 2020, will have direction, sets and costumes by Ai Weiwei (Beijing, 1957).

In fact, the Chinese artist and activist will devote himself to the opera set in Beijing. "It will be a Turandot from my point of view,“ said Ai Weiwei. ”An opera immersed in the contemporary world, in the cultural and political present represented through Puccini’s story."

Last June, the artist visited the theater’s set design and tailoring workshops in Rome to propose a new direction. He accepted the offer to take on the direction, costumes and set design of Turandot at the Teatro dell’Opera because this opera has a special meaning for him: in 1987 Ai Weiwei and his brother were extras in a special production of Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera House directed by Franco Zeffirelli. "I would never have accepted if it wasn’t Turandot,“ he commented, ”because I feel quite distant from the music. There are two aspects, however, that convinced me. One general, because I think the opera tells the story of contemporaneity, the cultural and political problems of today narrated, in this case, through Turandot."

Carlo Fuortes, superintendent of the Teatro dell’Opera, said, "I believe it is essential to program a theater that is attentive to all contemporary artistic ferments and always in search of the new. And so, wanting to propose a new direction of a beloved work such as Turandot, I felt that the current reinterpretation by one of the most established contemporary artists, Ai Wei Wei, who was born and raised in China, could be of great interest."

Ph.Credit Yasuko Kageyama

Turandot directed by Ai Weiwei will make its debut at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome in March 2020

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