Volume 14, Issue 1, 2017
I-Chun Wang
Pages 29-42
Spectacle and the Discourse of Empathy in Oriental Versions of Turandot
A Dialogue with the West in Wei Minglun and Lo Kingman
The story of Turandot originated in the East. It was later transformed into the tale of a merciless princess, and adapted onto the stage. Puccini‟s Turandot has been one of the most frequently restaged operas in the West, but Turandot‟s unreasonable cruelty and abrupt change of character have raised a lot of questions. Since quite a few contemporary playwrights and directors try to interpret Turandot with elements of empathy, this paper analyse the versions of Turandot in the Eastern world in discussion with the Western versions.