Puccini's 'Turandot' at La Scala, directed by Livermore

At La Scala the month of April is in the sign of "Turandot", by Puccini, with no less than ten performances. A fine singing company; Nicola Luisotti conducts; he is now at the Teatro Real in Madrid, well known to La Scala audiences for a recent "Tosca" and numerous Verdi operas. In Paris we turn instead to total escapism, with the musical "Top Hat", based on the famous film with the Astaire-Rogers couple.

Puccini's "Turandot" is on stage at La Scala from 1 to 29 April for ten performances. Nicola Luisotti conducts; the staging is designed by Davide Livermore; in the company is Anna Pirozzi as Turandot (Apr. 1, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 29), in her third appearance at La Scala after "I due Foscari" and "Nabucco"; this year she sang Turandot at London's Covent Garden and will also perform it at New York's Metropolitan, Naples' Teatro di San Carlo, the Torre del Lago Festival and the Arena in Verona. Calaf is played by Roberto Alagna (1, 9, 12, 18 and 24 Apr.). Liù is played by Mariangela Sicilia (1, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 18 and 21 Apr.). On stage, a gigantic moving lens highlights the symbolic elements of a dream - or nightmare - world constructed from accurate iconographic research into Chinese art today. The stage sets are digital works of art conceived and designed by D-Wok, one of the first companies in the world to make opera stage sets virtual, mixing the analogue and digital dimensions. One hour before the start of each performance, an introductory lecture about the opera will be held in the Ridotto dei Palchi.

On the 31st at the Conservatory, for the Società del Quartetto season, pianist Rafał Blechacz. In 2005 he won the Chopin Competition; shortly afterwards he began recording for Deutsche Grammophon; his discography, which ranges from Preludes to Chopin Concertos, has collected Platinum Records, ECHO Klassik and Diapason d'or awards, and is regularly celebrated by Gramophone magazine as excellence of the month and year. It is precisely to Chopin that the second part of the concert is dedicated, while in the first we will hear music by Beethoven and Schubert. In Blechacz, technique is never an exhibition, but a means of revealing the secret structure of music, a distinctive trait that has made him the natural heir to the great Polish tradition, imbued with a nobility of accent that eschews all manner of sentimentality.

Before the concert in the upper foyer of the Verdi Hall, from 7.45 to 8.15 p.m., there is a short listening guide.

Top Hat (photo by Johan Persson)

From 15 April to 3 May at the Théâtre du Châtelet is the musical 'Top Hat', based on the famous film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, with the immortal songs of Irving Berlin; in English, with French surtitles. The direction and choreography are by Kathleen Marshall, winner (among other honours) of the coveted Tony Award for 'Wonderful Town', 'Pajama Game' and 'Anything Goes'. When we mention Irving Berlin, we are talking about one of the Big Five of the Great American Songbook - the others being George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter et Richard Rodgers. To this Russian Jew, who emigrated at the age of five to the slums of Manhattan's Lower East Side, we owe immortal songs, including 'White Christmas'.