Due to an accident at the Teatro Regio in Turin on January 18 during a performance of Turandot, the next opera in the theatre's season will be presented in a semi-staged version.
Last week, at the start of the scene change after the closure of the tabs at the end of the second act of Turandot, a large semi spherical piece of scenery fell, injuring two members of the chorus.
As the theatre's stage is being subjected to a series of technical checks to guarantee the complete functionality of the stage mechanism, Robert Carsen's Salome, (15-25 February), will be adapted by his assistant Laurie Feldman to exclude the use of hoists and lifts.
Another problem which hampers the preparation of the stage for the new opera, is the fact that without the possibility to use all the stage machinery the get-out of the current production of Turandot will take much longer than scheduled, leaving no time to construct the Salome sets.
Salome is the central event of Turin's Richard Strauss Festival which involves many of the city's cultural institutions.
Unchanged, however, is the musical side of things, with Gianandrea Noseda conducting a cast which includes Erika Sunnegårdh, Robert Brubaker, Doris Soffel and Tommi Hakal.
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
