The all-Italian musical, The Snow Queen or La Regina di Ghiaccio, whose protagonist, Turandot, is played by Lorella Cuccarini will be playing at the Vittorio Emanuele Theatre in Messina.
The name of the protagonist brings to mind Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot from 1924, whose famous ending was later re-interpreted by other great names of the opera scene. Puccini’s composition was inspired by the eighteenth-century tale of Venetian artist Carlo Gozzi, who actually included characters from Italian comedy. The original source from which the musical writers Maurizio Colombi and Giulio Nannini drew was actually an ancient Persian fairy tale that had been handed down orally.
Who are the characters in this Turandot musical? A cold-hearted queen had a spell cast on her by three witches named Snowstorm Tormenta, Freezing Gelida and Fog Nebbia. The spell causes every man who looks at Queen Turandot to fall in love with her, but in order to marry her, her suitors will have to solve three riddles given to them by the queen. The penalty for those who cannot solve them is death. Unlike the original Puccinian prince, a simple man named Calaf, falls in love with Turandot. The queen realizes that something inside of her is changing.
A fairy tale full of magic, spells, emotions and love, The Snow Queen takes you on a journey of discovery. It’s suitable for everyone, even the smallest children, and expertly narrated by the actors’ voices and dancers’ gestures who take us on a magical journey that can only be conveyed on stage.
And now… silence in the theatre! Lights off! Curtains drawn! Showtime!