Milking It: Promoters are set to unleash Turandot mania

Puccini’s Turandot, a tale about a beautiful, but heartless, Chinese princess, was first performed in Beijing in 1998 at the Forbidden City – a multimedia extravaganza featuring over 4,000 costumes and a lineup of internationally performers, including conductor Janos Acs and sopranos Susan Foster and Raffaella Angeletti.

The opera returns to Beijing next month as part of the PRC’s 60th anniversary celebrations. Director Zhang Yimou will stage performances at the Bird’s Nest on October 6th and 7th, but that’s just the beginning: According to event organizer Haosi International, plans are underway to transform the RMB 120 million production into a “recognized Chinese princess-themed franchise.” Details have yet to be confirmed, but the organizers have informed us they want to go all out with merchandising by selling “handcrafted Princess Turandot dolls,” producing an animated feature, and building a Disney-like Turandot theme park in China.

Promotional activities are already underway – last Sunday Phoenix TV aired a nationwide “Princess Turandot” beauty contest in which the winner was announced in a program at the Bird’s Nest.

In addition to next month’s show at the Bird’s Nest, Zhang Yimou & Co. will stage Turandot at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, and plan to take the show on the road to France, Germany and Italy before finishing in London right before the 2012 Olympic games.

More details forthcoming. For ticket information, click here.