Madama Butterfly marked a new phase in Puccini’s development, in which he enriched his musical palette with the exoticism of the Far East. The fact that his direct emotionality contains a universal dimension is clear from the lasting worldwide popularity of this work. Hotel Pro Forma, known to us for their performance of Rachmaninov Troika in 2015, brings East and West together in a theatrical ritual for our time. Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, a master of the Italian repertoire, makes his La Monnaie debute.
Internationally acclaimed Chinese film-maker Chen Kaige delivers an opulent staging of the fairy-tale story of Chinese Princess Turandot, who will only marry a prince capable of solving her riddles. With sumptuous costumes and palace sets designed in China, Kaige's production adds a compellingly authentic accent to Puccini's exotic orchestral palette. Zubin Metha and his brilliant Orquestra de la Comunitet Valenciana offer "genuine foreworks of sound" (Wiener Zeitung), Maria Guleghina triumphs as Turandot. Recorded in 2008 at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia. Zubin Mehta (conductor).