Turandot: femme fatale of Puccini? Conference “warm up” by António Chagas Rosa
The ice princess who sacrifices men...
On the Puccinian stage – and, to a large extent, also in the composer's life – the female figure occupies a centrality rarely equaled in the history of opera. Few operas build their drama with such intensity around women, their passions and vulnerabilities, and the way in which, in them, love is confused with loss and sacrifice.
If it weren't for Turandot, Giacomo Puccini's last opera, with the implacable princess who condemns to death the suitors unable to decipher the riddles, one would say that the pantheon of Puccinian heroines is almost entirely populated by women willing to die for love – Mimì, Tosca, Cio-Cio-San: figures of absolute dedication, led to tragic destinies. Turandot erupts, however, as dissonance in this universe: she is not a victim, but a judge; does not sacrifice, makes sacrifice; where others are consumed, it hardens. Is it, then, Puccini's femme fatale – or rather the most extreme expression of an imaginary that places femininity on the threshold between fascination and destruction?
António Chagas Rosa is a composer and Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro. Throughout his career, he has devoted a significant part of his creative work to opera. In 1994, as part of Lisbon European Capital of Culture and following a commission from ACARTE at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, he composed his first opera, Cânticos para a Remissão da Fome. Commissioned by the cities of Porto and Rotterdam, the European Capitals of Culture in 2001, he composed Melodias Estranhas. In 2020, he returned to the genre with O Homem dos Sonhos, commissioned by Ópera do Castelo and premiered at Teatro São Luiz before being presented at several venues, including Operafest Lisboa. He is currently completing a new opera, also commissioned by Ópera do Castelo, which will receive its world premiere in 2027.
His catalogue also includes orchestral, chamber and vocal works, commissioned by institutions such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, the Macau International Music Festival, Klangforum Wien and the Nederlands Kamerkoor.
He holds a degree in History from NOVA University Lisbon and completed postgraduate studies in Composition and Chamber Music in the Netherlands, where he worked as a répétiteur at the Muziektheater Amsterdam and taught in the opera department of the Sweelinck Conservatory. He holds a PhD in Music from the University of Aveiro, where he has taught since 1996 and is a researcher at INET-md.