Turandot – Centenario della morte di Puccini – Teatro alla Scala

A new production of Turandot at La Scala. An hybrid between real and virtual, constructed scenes, digital video and performances where chorus, singers, and mimes created an exciting hi-tech show.

To celebrate the centenary of Puccini’s death, the Teatro alla Scala commissioned us to create a new staging for Turandot. The show mixed real and digital: we drawn different impressive scenes (an early 20th century Beijing, the hall of the royal palace, an opium den, a suspended bridge) which were enhanced with a large LED screen with virtual scenes, and a transparent circular screen simulating a large 3D sphere. Perfomance’s direction mixed break dance, animated puppets and choreographies together with the actions of the opera singers and the 80-person choir. At the point where Puccini died while writing the opera, the show stopped: audience and performers on stage honoured the Master by lighting thousands of candles. Davide Livermore, D-Wok’s partner and artistic director curated the direction, the virtual and real scenes were designed by Peronetti, Livermore and Cucco, while the video direction was curated by Paolo Gep Cucco, D-Wok’s partner and creative director.

Turandot is one of the most performed operas in the world: for this centenary edition La Scala wanted a unique, spectacular and innovative staging. Once again D-Wok creative team was called upon to realise and direct a hybrid show between real and virtual: the imaginary was developed using AI to create a world halfway between Blade Runner and manga, while digital scene multiplied the depths of the city by changing its light, colour and texture. Thanks to a sophisticated 3D video creation technique, the circular see-through LED looked incredibly spherical: sometimes internal thought, sometimes naturalistic element, sometimes digital effect, the sphere has become a phantasmagorical microworld, almost a digital storyteller. Livermore’s directorial idea to stage Lou Ling, Turandot’s ava, as a possession that guides the protagonist’s actions, has become the key to interpreting Puccini’s fairytale world revisited in a hi-tech key.