{"id":244071,"date":"2026-05-26T17:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/244071\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:03:11","slug":"how-the-met-refurbished-franco-zeffirellis-version-of-turandot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/244071\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Met Refurbished Franco Zeffirelli\u2019s Version of Turandot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the course of the Metropolitan Opera\u2019s first 100 years, the company had staged only two productions of Puccini\u2019s final masterpiece, Turandot. When, in the 1980s, the Met sought a director to deliver a new vision for such a monumental work, the company turned to one of the most in-demand artists of the day: Franco Zeffirelli<\/a>. By the time his new staging of Turandot premiered on March 12, 1987, the legendary Italian director-designer was well established at the Met and renowned internationally for his grand theatrical vision: His staging of Barber\u2019s Antony and Cleopatra inaugurated the Met\u2019s new house at Lincoln Center in 1966, utilizing every element of stage technology available\u00a0n the state-of-the-art theater, and his lavish takes on Puccini\u2019s La Boh\u00e8me (1981) and Tosca (1985) were instant classics.<\/p>\n

With its awe-inspiring gilded scenery and intricately decorated costumes, Zeffirelli\u2019s Turandot was exactly what audiences hoped for, drawing \u201cgasps of delight and astonishment\u201d (The New York Times). Critics, too, gave glowing praise to the new staging, with the New York Post calling the production \u201ca big, eye-catching, densely packed, opulent new production staged by the master of monumentality.\u201d Performances that spring were some of the hottest tickets in the city.<\/p>\n

After nearly four decades of sensational performances, Zeffirelli\u2019s grand vision of\u00a0mythic China was due for some restoration. This spring\u2019s performances mark a major milestone in the Met\u2019s efforts to keep this fan-favorite production on stage far into the future. Thanks to a generous gift from C. Graham Berwind, III, the staging has undergone extensive refurbishment over the past year: The scenery got a much-needed facelift, and the costumes also received some extra TLC.<\/p>\n

The work has included rebuilding the main structural elements in Acts II and III from the ground up, and since there were no technical sketches to refer to, the Met\u2019s top-notch carpenters relied on the existing set itself as their reference. Several of the props, too, have been remade with newer, more durable materials, including Turandot\u2019s royal veil, which shelters the icy princess in her grand Act II entrance.<\/p>\n

Nearly a century after its Met premiere and after almost 400 performances, Turandot has more than secured its place as a pillar of the Met\u2019s repertory, and in its newly rejuvenated incarnation, Franco Zeffirelli\u2019s spectacular staging will continue to dazzle audiences for decades to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the course of the Metropolitan Opera\u2019s first 100 years, the company had staged only two productions of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-244071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}