Riccardo Cocciante (third from left) attends the launch ceremony for the Chinese language musical Turandot at the Forbidden City in Beijing on Monday. Photo: Courtesy of Liu Ran

The Forbidden City has been a lucky place for Italians. It was here that late Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci shot his epic film The Last Emperor, which won him nine Oscars, including Best Picture. 

This is also where Italian musician and composer Riccardo Cocciante announced his new project, a Chinese language musical adaptation of the famous Giacomo Puccini opera Turandot, on Monday. Created with support from Chinese partners, the new version is set to kick off a national tour in May 2020, 22 years after the opera version made its debut in China. 

Not an easy job

In 1998, veteran Chinese director Zhang Yimou brought Puccini's opera to Beijing's historical Ancestral Temple for the very first time. The opera, conducted by Zubin Mehta with Giovanna Casolla, Audrey Stottler and Sharon Sweet taking turns playing the Princess Turandot, opened the door for Chinese people to enjoy Western opera. 

"Why not create a Chinese version of Turandot?" Cocciante said at the announcement, recalling the question posed to him by a Chinese producer he met while taking his French musical Notre Dame de Paris on a tour of China. 

"But I said, 'no,'" he said. 

"I felt so tiny when seeing Puccini's version in front of me." 

Years later, however, Cocciante changed his mind. 

"Every musician shall have his own interpretation of music as well as his own version. Why can't I create something under my name? It is not an easy job to do, but at least we can try," Cocciante explained.

After 1998, various versions of Turandot were performed in China, allowing audiences in the country to see this interesting story that takes place in China but was written by a Westerner. 

The opera, about Prince Calaf's attempts to marry the cold Princess Turandot, became a hit in China, partial because it features the Chinese folk melody "Jasmine Flower." 

Cocciante, known for his Notre Dame de Paris, The Little Prince and an Italian version of Romeo and Juliet, has gathered an international team for the upcoming show, including director and choreographer Micha Van Hoecke, art coordinator of the Palermo Opera and Dance Company; lyricist Chen Su, an actor at the Opera National de Paris who helped translated Notre Dame de Paris into Chinese; light and stage designer Jacques Rouveyrollis, the lighting designer for the Eiffel Tower's 120th anniversary celebration; and costume designer Gabriella Pescucci, the academy award winner who has worked on films such as The Age of Innocence, Once Upon a Time in America and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Opera for the people 

In Cocciante's eyes, today's world is a fusion of East and West, and so is his team, which as crew members from Europe and China as well. 

"I prefer to call it an opera for the people, instead of a musical, which allows the general public to get involved," he added. 

"We will have a lot of Chinese elements as well as elements from Europe, because it will be a work of the world and a fusion of Eastern and Western cultures." 

In what is probably the boldest choice, the composer emphasized that the Chinese melody "Jasmine Flower" will not appear in the musical. 

"It is a complete new show," Cocciante noted. 

"Just like the Italian opera Caman, whose story took place in Spain, Turandot is a work that Riccardo Cocciante hopes to use to express his own mind and thinking to the world," said Van Hoecke at the event.