teamLab Turandot
Photo: Opera Turandot, at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva © teamLab, Courtesy Daniel Kramer, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Pace Gallery

teamLab's scenography for the Tokyo staging of Turandot the opera is breathtaking

Daniel Kramer’s modern take on the classic opera dazzles with laser beams, outlandish gore and skin-tight body suits

Emma Steen
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Emma Steen
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In 1924, prominent Italian composer Giacomo Puccini wrote an opera about a Chinese emperor endeavouring to find a suitor for his unmarried daughter, Princess Turandot. Puccini died before he could complete the final act of his last masterpiece, which left the door open for subsequent generations of composers and artists to offer their interpretations of the show. Now, almost a century after Puccini's death, art collective teamLab has made its foray into scenography with a new staging of Turandot in collaboration with director Daniel Kramer. 

The show, which debuted in Geneva last year at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, is now being performed by a local cast at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan until February 26 2023. There's only one way to describe the production, which is completely, utterly batshit, but that's precisely why we love it. Allows us to explain.

teamLab Turnadot
Photo: Opera Turandot, at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva © teamLab, Courtesy Daniel Kramer, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Pace Gallery

For starters, there's the violent, often grotesque nature of the story itself. Turandot, who is reluctant to follow her father's wishes, has been avoiding marriage by giving every potential suitor a set of three riddles to solve. Here, the unlucky suitors hoping to win Turandot's heart are more or less set up to fail and are mercilessly executed when they can't solve the riddles, so there's a lot of bloodshed on stage. 

teamLab Turnadot
Photo: Opera Turandot, at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva © Magali Dougados, Courtesy teamLab, Daniel Kramer, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Pace Gallery

Then there's the fact that Puccini himself never visited China before he created Turandot, which is evident in the naming of characters like 'Ping', 'Pang' and 'Pong'. This has led to troubling incidents of yellow-face in modern-day opera productions, with directors leaning into the same outdated misconceptions about Imperial China as Puccini.

teamLab Turnadot
Photo: Opera Turandot, at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Geneva © teamLab, Courtesy Daniel Kramer, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Pace Gallery

Kramer, who has also reimagined stagings for productions such as 'La Boheme' and Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America', leans into the weirdest, most outlandish and perverse aspects of Puccini's vision for a thoroughly entertaining, much-needed revamp of the opera. Brimming with laser beams, shimmery streamers, ultra-camp costumes of skin-tight leather pants and lycra bodysuits, the production is an unapologetically over-the-top spectacle that would probably delight Puccini himself if he was around to see it.

Kramer's Turandot, featuring Italian composer Luciano Berio's finalé, will be performed at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan until February 26 2023. You can read more about the production here.

This article was published on December 5 2022 and updated on February 24 2023.

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