Turandot, Robert Wilson's final gaze

The Opéra Bastille brings back Giacomo Puccini's Turandot in Robert Wilson's production. The revival carries particular significance: the American director, who died in 2025, created with this work his last production for the Paris Opera. And the return falls in the centenary year of the world premiere, staged at La Scala in Milan on 25 April 1926 under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. Puccini's final opera, Turandot remained unfinished at the composer's death in 1924, when the great closing duet had barely been sketched. It was completed by Franco Alfano, on the basis of the notes left by the composer. Based on Carlo Gozzi's theatrical fable, with a libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, it tells of the princess who, to avenge an ancestor, subjects her suitors to three deadly riddles, until an unknown prince manages to solve them. Alongside its most famous aria, Nessun dorma, the score evokes a legendary China with orchestral colours of great refinement. Co-produced with the Teatro Real in Madrid, where it premiered in 2018, and with the opera houses of Vilnius, Toronto and Houston, the production entered the Paris repertoire in 2021. Wilson, who had already staged a Madama Butterfly in Paris in 1993 that remains among the company's best-loved productions, builds the opera as a sequence of tableaux. Pared-down sets, light as protagonist, and ritualised gestures inspired by Noh theatre give solemnity to the crowd scenes and a burlesque touch to the trio of ministers Ping, Pang and Pong. Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim, music director of San Francisco Opera, leads the Paris Opera Orchestra and Chorus. The role of the princess is shared by Elza van den Heever, until 12 December, and Italian soprano Anna Pirozzi, from 15 to 27 December. Yusif Eyvazov sings Calaf, while Liù is sung by Adriana González and then Gabriella Reyes. The cast is completed by Alexander Tsymbalyuk as Timur, Carlo Bosi as the Emperor Altoum and Biagio Pizzuti as Ping.