Turandon't - Royal Opera House Review 2023

A valid excuse to defund the arts.

I built this hub with the intention of honestly.

A friend, who recently premiered a piece at the Barbican, was reading aloud his reviews from the night: highly personalised, at times cruel, critical of new music and the effort that goes into the development. La Nouvelle Voix, however, is the site that does not stray from criticism, but approaches any criticism with genuine and honest intention. I felt highly uncomfortable in the audience of the Royal Opera House's Turandot. One should separate the art from the artist and I believe, it is entirely fair to continue to play the works of Puccini. This relies on a number of factors: the art is approach sensitively, there is perhaps a pre-performance talk, the cast is appropriately cast. In a recent BBC, it states that the 'Royal Opera House has been accused of whitewashing.' Well, yes... this is entirely the case. The advocacy group, Beats, which represents British Asians, have said the original work contains "problematical misogyny and orientalism," which has been problematically addressed by the Royal Opera House, through, not addressing it at all... The audience (UCL students in black-tie) was unsurprising. It felt like being in a member's club; notoriously the best way to feel when watching opera.

This sits nine months on from the problematic performance of Puccini's work at the Arena di Verona during its 2022 summer season, which saw Anna Netrebko cast as Princess Turandot. That's really all there is to say on that matter.

For the moment of truth in this monumental review, yes, Russell Thomas, did a pretty good Nessun Dorma. Pappano is fab.