''Turandot or the Whitewashers' Congress'' is an epic

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

by the German

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

playwright

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...

. It was written during the summer of 1953 in Buckow and substantially revised in light of a brief period of rehearsals in 1954, though it was still incomplete at the time of Brecht's death in 1956 and did not receive its first production until several years later. It premièred on 5 February

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 ** Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

at the Zürich Schauspielhaus, in a production directed by

Benno Besson Benno Besson (born René-Benjamin Besson; 4 November 1922 in Yverdon-les-Bains – 16 February 2006 in Berlin, Germany) was a Swiss actor and director. He had great success as director at Volksbühne Berlin, Deutsches Theater and Berliner ...

and Horst Sagert, with music by

Yehoshua Lakner Yehoshua Lakner (b. Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, 24 April 1924; d. Zürich, Switzerland, 5 December 2003) ( Hebrew: יהושוע לקנר) was a composer of contemporary classical music. He settled in Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer t ...

. The story is loosely based on Count

Carlo Gozzi __NOTOC__ Carlo, Count Gozzi (; 13 December 1720 – 4 April 1806) was an Italian (Venetian) playwright and champion of Commedia dell'arte. Early life Gozzi was born and died in Venice; he came from a family of minor Venetian aristocracy, the T ...

's ''

commedia dell'arte (; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charac ...

'' play ''

Turandot ''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...

'' (1762), a production of which Brecht saw in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1932, directed by

Yevgeny Vakhtangov Yevgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov (also spelled Evgeny or Eugene; russian: Евге́ний Багратио́нович Вахта́нгов; 13 February 1883 – 29 May 1922) was a Russian-Armenian actor and theatre director who founded the ...

. From 1930 onwards, Brecht began to develop a version of his own, which became part of a wider complex of projects exploring the role of

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator o ...

s (or " Tuis," as he called them) in a

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, pri ...

society. Brecht's

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

is coarse, lacking the whimsical charm of Gozzi's portrayal and the aspiration to nobility in Schiller's adaptation (1801).Thomson (1994, 25). The play consists of 27 subdividing pictures in 10 major scenes. Its plot is about how to explain high cotton prices, although of a vast harvest. The prize for best explanation is Turandot. The big topic is the abuse of intellectual skills. The play had its British première in an amateur production in 1970 and a professional production at the

Oxford Playhouse Oxford Playhouse is a theatre designed by Edward Maufe and F.G.M. Chancellor. It is situated in Beaumont Street, Oxford, opposite the Ashmolean Museum. History The Playhouse was founded as ''The Red Barn'' at 12 Woodstock Road, North Oxf ...

in 1971.Jacobs and Ohlsen (1977, 88, 91).

Notes

Sources

* Brecht, Bertolt. 2004. ''Turandot or The Whitewashers' Conference''. Trans. Tom Kuhn. In Kuhn and Constantine (2004, 127-193). * Jacobs, Nicholas and Prudence Ohlsen, eds. 1977. ''Bertolt Brecht in Britain.'' London: IRAT Services Ltd and TQ Publications. . * Kuhn, Tom and David Constantine, eds. 2004. ''Collected Plays: Eight.'' By Bertolt Brecht. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry, Prose Ser. London: Methuen. . * Müller-Waldeck, Gunnar. 1981. ''Vom "Tui"-Roman zu "Turandot"''. Ed. Brecht-Zentrum der DDR, Berlin: 1981. * Sacks, Glendyr. 1994. "A Brecht Calendar." In Thomson and Sacks (1994, xvii-xxvii). * Thomson, Peter. 1994. "Brecht's Lives". In Thomson and Sacks (1994, 22-39). * Thomson, Peter and Glendyr Sacks, eds. 1994. ''The Cambridge Companion to Brecht''. Cambridge Companions to Literature Ser. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . * Willett, John. 1967. ''The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht: A Study from Eight Aspects.'' Third rev. ed. London: Methuen, 1977. . {{Turandot 1954 plays 1969 plays Plays by Bertolt Brecht Works based on Turandot (Gozzi)