# Did you hear about the Turandot movie?



## amadeus1928 (Jun 16, 2021)

It's not out yet but here is the trailer just in case you haven't heard:






What are your opinions on this movie and would you want to watch it when it comes out?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

It is sort of like the difference in Verdi's Aida and Elton John's Aida. Great production and unlike the opera the Turandot looks like a young princess. Great action and production. Not really the same thing. They made Tristan and Isolde into a spoken dialogue movie. I doubt if it was as memorable as Wagner's version. Still these old stories have life left in them.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

amadeus1928 said:


> It's not out yet but here is the trailer just in case you haven't heard:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Pass the barf bag please.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The trailer is nothing but frantic action moments spliced together. I get no sense of a story or characters. This might appeal to video game players, but not to me.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

Unless it is adapted from one of the operas (and with singing), it may not do much for opera itself. If it's a great story (I'm not familiar with it) it may make a great movie, and there seem to be decent production values. Lovers of Asian fantasy - an increasingly popular genre in Western cinema - will likely find it more satisfying than an opera lover looking for a "faithful" translation.

Does opera translate well into cinema?


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Interesting that they borrowed the name of an opera that probably means nothing to the fantasy martial arts genre. Maybe the producers or director are opera fans. But for most opera goers, this is no *Turandot*. Where's the beef?


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Seattleoperafan said:


> It is sort of like the difference in Verdi's Aida and Elton John's Aida. Great production and unlike the opera the Turandot looks like a young princess. Great action and production. Not really the same thing. They made Tristan and Isolde into a spoken dialogue movie. I doubt if it was as memorable as Wagner's version. Still these old stories have life left in them.


The movie *Tristan and Isolde* was not meant for the same audience as that of Wagner's *Tristan und Isolde*. The Arthurian story is as old as the hills. The movie was a misfire, partly due to the casting and direction, partly due to the script. Neither excites me.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

MAS said:


> Interesting that they borrowed the name of an opera that probably means nothing to the fantasy martial arts genre. Maybe the producers or director are opera fans. But for most opera goers, this is no *Turandot*. Where's the beef?


Hang on...Turandot may be the name of a couple of operas (not just Puccini's) but there is an older story on which the operas were based.


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## 1846 (Sep 1, 2021)

I couldn't possibly have a valid opinion about a movie just by watching a short trailer promoting it. All I'm going to say is that I'm intrigued and that I'd probably be interested in seeing it if I get the opportunity. And no, I'm not a gamer and don't have a clue about that world.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

As opera lovers we always tend to think that Turandot means Puccini, but it’s an old tale (written by Carlo Gozzi in 1762 after a story from the collection by Pétis de la Croix). It was also set by Busoni, but why not a movie which tells the same story but has nothing to do with the opera?


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> The trailer is nothing but frantic action moments spliced together. I get no sense of a story or characters. This might appeal to video game players, but not to me.


as a video game player, some of us are actually very interested in plot. not this swill lmao

PS: I'll give it this though, the guy playing Calaf is very nice to look at. she should be trying to get with him, not the other way around


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> as a video game player, some of us are actually very interested in plot. not this swill lmao
> 
> PS: I'll give it this though, the guy playing Calaf is very nice to look at. she should be trying to get with him, not the other way around


Of course I mean those other video game players.


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## ThaNotoriousNIC (Jun 29, 2020)

Looks like a new Chinese wuxia movie that Netflix has been showing a lot of in the West in recent years. Highly doubt that it will have all that much in common with the Puccini opera. Fun fact but looks like the Calaf is is played by one of the Sprouse twins. Wonder if they will dub him in the movie lol.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Of course I mean those other video game players.


I took no offense, I guess I felt the need to point that out because, imo, video games are often some of the only real art produced in the 21st century. there is an authenticity to some of the more niche genres not found in mainstream movies or TV


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Read _Teen Vogue _and you learn about the new movie *Turandot*, which is based on the Puccini opera after all. Who knew?

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/dylan-sprouse-will-star-in-a-new-fantasy-movie-called-turandot


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

the plot of this opera is already a feminist nightmare that I tolerate just for the singing, so seeing a movie about it would do nothing for me.


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> the plot of this opera is already a feminist nightmare that I tolerate just for the singing, so seeing a movie about it would do nothing for me.


I'm not sure many feminists would endorse Puccini's opera.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

amfortas said:


> I'm not sure many feminists would endorse Puccini's opera.


that would require them to endorse something of quality, so that's hardly surprising (okay, I'll stop lmao)


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## BachIsBest (Feb 17, 2018)

amfortas said:


> I'm not sure many feminists would endorse opera.


Fixed it for you


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## AlexD (Nov 6, 2011)

Turnadot started out as a tune on a music box that got turned into an opera and then into cinema. Many of Shakespeare plays started out as Italian stories/plays that Shakespeare used to make his plays which were then turned into operas.

Baz Luhrmann didn't do too bad a job with Moulin Rouge, which is the story of La Bohème translated into cinema. It was an entertaining enough evening at the cinema, but I wouldn't rush to see it again. It's not a faithful translation, but certainly shows that opera can be adapted to cinema - much like plays and poems were adapted into operas.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

AlexD said:


> Turnadot started out as a tune on a music box that got turned into an opera and then into cinema. Many of Shakespeare plays started out as Italian stories/plays that Shakespeare used to make his plays which were then turned into operas.
> 
> Baz Luhrmann didn't do too bad a job with Moulin Rouge, which is the story of La Bohème translated into cinema. It was an entertaining enough evening at the cinema, but I wouldn't rush to see it again. It's not a faithful translation, but certainly shows that opera can be adapted to cinema - much like plays and poems were adapted into operas.


I love Moulin Rouge, but I wouldn't say it was the story of La Boheme. It has elements of both La Traviata and La Boheme, to be sure, and it is well known that Baz Luhrmann has directed La Boheme on stage, but the movie is somewhat genre defyng, with its fusion of pop and dance. I think it's a great movie, but not everybody got it. It's now been made into a stage musical, but I'd say it owes less to La Boheme than Miss Saigon does to Madama Butterfly.


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## AlexD (Nov 6, 2011)

The whole story is lifted from La Boheme. 

A poor artist who lives in Paris falls in loves with a socialite (who hangs around with the a bunch of Parisian bohemians) who is slowly dying of tuberculosis. 

They took the opera of La Boheme and adapted it for the cinema - much in the same way Baz Lurhmann turned Romeo & Juliet into a supercharged Romeo + Juliet. 

It's not the opera, but it is the La Boheme translated/adapted for the cinema. 

I "got" it, but felt it was flawed in the execution.

I don't think it was awful (apart from Ewan McGregor) - it's just something I saw once and didn't rate as an absolute classic. But then, I don't think I was the target audience.


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## Forster (Apr 22, 2021)

> Our recognisable story, though Orphean in shape, is derived from Camille, La Boheme - whether you know those texts or not, you recognise those patterns and character types.


Baz Luhrmann

https://web.archive.org/web/20140509221831/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/sep/07/1


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