Sunday 9 March 2014

Scottish Opera, Turandot, Press Release

88 singers, 90 musicians and one chance to see Puccini’s epic final masterpiece Turandot in Edinburgh this Spring.

Bringing together a star-studded cast which includes Claire Rutter, José Ferrero, Ryland Davies and Sir Willard White, this one-off concert performance from Scottish Opera gives audiences the chance to hear some of the most thrilling music in Italian opera – including ‘the’ tenor aria made famous by Luciano Pavarotti: ‘Nessun Dorma’.


Joining the cast onstage will be a 79 strong chorus, and over 80 members of The Orchestra of Scottish Opera, with a banda of a further 7 instrumentalists providing offstage accompaniment - all under the baton of former Scottish Opera Music Director Francesco Corti.


Princess Turandot is beautiful but cold-hearted: wanted by all men but with no desire for a husband. To please her father, she promises to marry whoever can solve her three riddles. To try and fail means execution, and many fail, but to Turandot’s horror, an unknown prince gives three correct answers. He swears to go willingly to his death if she can guess his name…With the whole city under threat of death unless his secret is revealed, it falls to Liù, a slave girl harbouring a secret passion, to save him.


Leading British soprano Claire Rutter makes her role debut as Turandot, with tenor José Ferrero as her Unknown Prince. Returning to work with the Company that kick-started his career 50 years ago is Ryland Davies as The Emperor Altoum. Also returning to Scottish Opera for the first time since 1991 is world-famous bass-baritone Sir Willard White as Timur. Rising star Eleanor Dennis is slave girl Liù. Nicholas Lester, Andrew Kennedy and Christopher Turner are Ping, Pang and Pong with Jonathan May as A Mandarin.

This concert performance follows the sell-out successes of I Puritani in 2009, and Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci in 2012 and takes Scottish Opera to the Usher Hall for the first time since 2010.


Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Sunday 30 March, 4pm


This concert performance of Turandot will be sung in Italian with English supertitles.

The 79-strong chorus also includes members of Scottish Opera’s Connect Chorus, for 14 to 21 year old singers.

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