teamLab Debuts Futuristic Scenography for Puccini's Turandot

The Japanese art collective teamLab has created futuristic scenography for a new production of Giacomo Puccini's unfinished opera Turandot, marking their debut in opera stage design. The production, directed by Daniel Kramer and conducted by Antonino Fogliani, premiered at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in Switzerland from June 20 to July 3, 2023, and is now being staged at the Tokyo Nikikai Opera in Japan, also available for streaming on OperaVision. Kramer's staging reimagines the story as a dystopian game show set in Beijing's Forbidden City, where Princess Turandot presides over a surveillance state. teamLab's contribution involves immersive light projections and kaleidoscopic visuals that dissolve the boundary between stage and audience, developed over five years in close collaboration with the director. The opera's original 1926 premiere at La Scala in Milan was famously interrupted by conductor Arturo Toscanini at the point where Puccini had stopped composing. This production follows another recent version directed by Ai Weiwei in Rome.