Puccini’s dramatic and stunning masterpiece, Turandot, whose premiere was postponed due to the war, will be on stage at the Israeli Opera through July 12.
The opera was deep in rehearsals when the Israel-Iran war broke out. “The schedule was largely dictated by the directives of the Home Front Command,” Dan Ettinger, the opera’s musical director and conductor of this production, explained.
“On days when the Home Front Command permitted, we managed to hold a single orchestra rehearsal, which took place in a protected area.”
Despite the freeze and the uncertainty, most of the international soloists who had come specifically to Israel chose to stay. Ettinger described the complex experience of these foreign singers: “On the one hand, they’re not like us, but on the other, the Russians, and especially the Ukrainians, told us, ‘At least you have protection; for us, missiles fall with no defense.’
All the Chinese and Koreans stayed except for two Brits, one originally Korean, the other living in Ireland, who couldn’t handle the fear and left through Aqaba.”
Thanks to the extraordinary effort and dedication of the more than 200 participants, soloists, musicians, dancers, choristers, and actors, in returning to intense rehearsals, “sometimes three rehearsals a day,” Ettinger said, Turandot will close the Israeli Opera’s season with grandeur.
A world-class production
The opera’s story unfolds in mythical China, the China of legend, not history. The plot centers on the powerful Princess Turandot, who condemns princes from around the world to death when they fail to answer the three riddles she poses. Whoever solves them will win her hand; whoever fails loses his life. Many have tried and failed until the arrival of a mysterious prince, Calaf, who solves all the riddles.
The opera explores Turandot’s destructive power and how love can soften even the coldest heart. Its three main figures, Turandot, Calaf, and Liù, echo differing elements: ice, fire, and water. Turandot, hardened by survival in a violent masculine world, meets Liù, a figure of quiet compassion, who teaches her the power of sacrifice and selfless mercy.
Atypically for Puccini, the curtain does not fall on a death but on an emotional shift toward reconciliation and redemption. The production examines the struggle between control and surrender, fear and love, offering a powerful spectacle of love’s redemptive force.
Directed by the renowned Andrei Serban and conducted by Ettinger, this staging of Turandot is a collaboration with London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Serban originally created it for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and it has since become a landmark of modern operatic direction.
His staging is lavish and tradition-rich with its Chinese costumes, vivid masks, grand wooden structures, and precise choreography by Kate Flatt.
Beneath the spectacle, sharp imagery weaves a narrative of power, fear, and hope. The three ministers, Ping, Pang, and Pong, drawn from the Commedia dell’arte tradition, add a seemingly comic element, but emerge as central figures in the ritual of violence and oppression beneath the surface.
International reviews have praised the production as “a gripping theatrical experience, wrapped in dazzling formal beauty that reveals underlying systems of power, fear, and hope” and “a brilliant direction for a stage layered with colors, masks, and human secrets.”
Puccini’s crowning achievement
The music of Turandot is among Puccini’s greatest creations, crowned by the immortal aria “Nessun Dorma,” which has achieved legendary status through countless tenor performances.
Puccini did not complete the opera himself.
After writing the scene in which Liù refuses to reveal the prince’s identity, Puccini’s work on the score was interrupted. Ettinger explains that Puccini’s student, Franco Alfano, wrote two possible endings, from which this production’s finale is drawn. “We created a blend of Alfano’s two versions and crafted a magnificent ending that has since become inseparable from the work. The transition between them is unmistakable.”
“This is an opera that is very difficult to stage,” Ettinger said, noting that the Israeli Opera had not mounted Turandot for more than 15 years.
“It’s the perfect opera to close the season,” he added. The production is considered one of the most impressive to have appeared in Israel in recent years, with its numerous participants, including the symphony orchestra, dozens of soloists from Israel and abroad, adult and youth choruses, a dedicated dance troupe, actors, designers, set builders, stagehands, and a large technical team. The intricate sets, vivid costumes, colorful masks, and precise choreography were all created especially for this production in Israel, in full collaboration with Covent Garden.
Ettinger expressed deep gratitude to everyone involved, especially for the intensive rehearsals under a tight schedule, adding, “It was an extraordinary mobilization. Everyone, from the soloists to the last member of the crew, worked day and night to bring Turandot back to the Israeli audience with all the power and beauty it deserves.”
Through July 12 at the Israel Opera House, Tel Aviv. For more information and tickets: www.israel-opera.co.il