Ai Weiwei makes directorial operatic debut with 'Turandot' in Rome

A grand scene showing actors performing in Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot" staged by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at Rome's Opera House (Teatro dell'Opera di Roma). Photo: AFP

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei made his directorial operatic debut in Rome recently with a new reading of Giacomo Puccini's final, unfinished opera, Turandot.

And with a storyline seeping with bloodshed and despotism, a new geopolitical focus and Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv in the pit, the new production - originally meant to have premiered in 2020, but delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic - comes exactly on time.