Turandot reheard: Killer princess has been misunderstood all along

The title character in Puccini’s final opera, Turandot, could be described as an enigma wrapped in a riddle – or three riddles, to be exact.

The Chinese princess challenges any suitor who would dare approach her with three sphinx-like puzzles. Getting it wrong means death.

Director Ann Yee, whose new production for Opera Australia opens on Thursday, says the princess has often been depicted as an ice queen or a man-killer. Yee believes she is suffering “profound intergenerational trauma”.

Turandot director Ann Yee at the Sydney Opera House. Credit: Steven Siewert

“She rocks up and sings with absolute clarity: ‘I am housing the soul of my ancestor, I am protecting that’,” Yee says. “The psychological depth is right there – I don’t think I have to create it. Shockingly, you just have to listen to the woman.”

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Yee has a cast of exceptional singers for the first-night performance: Melbourne-born dramatic soprano Rebecca Nash, making her Australian homecoming as Turandot; South Korean tenor Young Woo Kim as Calaf, who nails the opera’s big number, Nessun dorma; and Italian soprano Maria Teresa Leva as slave girl Liu.

But the director also has some tricks up her sleeve.

Princess Lou-Ling is Turandot’s long-dead ancestor, whose violation and murder at the hands of a barbarian invader is the source of Turandot’s trauma.

She is depicted in Yee’s production by dancer Hoyori Maruo, who is given movement that is “incredibly visceral and full of risk”.

“I think it’s amazing, what Turandot is trying to do – to hold the memory of an ancestor who everyone else wants to forget,” she says. “And to stand for that, to stand for something, is incredible. [We are] witnessing a character who has such a phenomenal value system.”

Another innovation is the use of an avatar stand-in for Turandot, which serves as both a shield and a symbol of an inscrutable personality.

‘One production doesn’t undo the opera or make the opera.’

It was designed by US artist Andrew Thomas Huang – he’d previously made a similar mask-like installation for the 2024 Biennale of Sydney – and animated by a production company, Collider.

“In protecting herself, and protecting Lou-Ling, an avatar enters the space,” Yee says.

“Elizabeth Gadsby did the set design, and we worked together to create a psychological space in which an avatar would live, as well as the singers and dancers.”

First staged a century ago at La Scala, Milan, in 1926, Turandot is a cultural mashup of exotic legend, commedia dell’arte, borrowed Chinese folk melody, and Puccini’s instincts for high drama and thrilling vocal display.

Graeme Murphy’s Turandot has been a regular Opera Australia favourite since 1990. Credit: Prudence Upton

There’s nothing authentically Chinese about it, which is why the opera has been criticised for its cultural appropriation and caricature.

Yee, who was born in Ohio and has Chinese heritage, says she has staged the opera in a modern-day, psychological landscape, without trying to conjure a fictional Chinese kingdom.

She and the creative team have worked closely with cultural consultants Dr Xiaohuan Zhao and Professor Jing Han to help navigate potential pitfalls.

Yee made her career as a choreographer and only recently has begun directing opera, including a new production of Rusalka for the Royal Opera in London. Being a relative newcomer to the art form, she says, meant that she could approach Turandot in a fresh way.

Another choreographer-turned-director, Graeme Murphy, staged Turandot for Opera Australia in 1990. That version has been in service ever since. Yee’s production offers a different look at this ever-popular opera.

“One production doesn’t undo the opera or make the opera – the music remains to be filtered through another artist’s head at another time,” she says. “The opera is just fine. The music stays alive.”

Turandot, Joan Sutherland Theatre, January 15 - March 27.

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