AI WEIWEI’S TURANDOT

Italy, USA | 2025 | 78 min | col.| English, Italian

In 2018, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome commissioned the visual artist Ai Weiwei to stage the Turandot on the centenary of Giacomo Puccini, marking the artist’s operatic directorial debut. The visionary Chinese artist accepted the invitation and challenge to bring its themes up to date, depicting the superstructures that rule society and exposing the oppressive power and mass manipulation of oligarchs. The choreographer Chiang Ching, a long-time friend of the artist, was essential to the project, which was plagued by external events that complicated its production: first, Covid-19 forced the whole crew to take a lengthy break; then the invasion of Ukraine drove the orchestra director, Oksana Lyniv, to almost leave. Worldly-known for his politically committed work, Ai Weiwei brought his iconoclastic activism to opera, just like the director of this film – the son of Russian dissidents – focused on the themes of art’s power as a form of resistance and freedom of expression. (A.S.)