At the Odeon of Herod Atticus, an elegant and sensitive « turandot » – Liberation
The latest fires of the sunset nimb the Odeon of Herod Atticus, whose interstices are home to new busts and Chinese statues. The orchestra installed in a pit, a young vestal advances on the set before being brutally abused by strangers. This unusual prologue gives the dramaturgical key to Puccini’s ultimate masterpiece: it is because she identifies with her grandmother, L-Ou-ling, victim of rape, as she sings in the second act (« You who have challenged, inflexible and safe, the harsh domination, today, you are revising in me! ») that the Turandot princess refuses the love of men whom she has decapitated in turn.
Some would have rushed into this breach to deliver a update reading on sexual violence and their tragic consequences; not the sage Andrei Serban whose first Turandot Coven Garden is regularly resumed to Londonfor over forty years! It was Chloé Obolensky, decorator and historical costume designer of Peter Brook, whose Romanian director was the assistant, who suggested at the Athens opera to hire him. By adding to this duo the chief light Jean Kalman who also collaborated with Obolensky on the sublime Death in Venice, From Britten, that sign Deborah Warner, we hold the recipe for an elegant and sensitive show.
The magnificence of the clothes
