New York’s financially struggling Metropolitan Opera has slapped a trigger warning on Puccini’s Turandot, warning audiences that the much-performed masterpiece that is set in feudal China is “rife” with “racial stereotypes.”
It also accuses Puccini of cultural appropriation, claiming the Italian composer borrowed and distorted Chinese music.
The lengthy trigger warning, which is contained in program notes that can be viewed online, calls Puccini’s classic opera “problematic.” The production currently running at the Met is the late Franco Zeffirelli’s opulent staging that the company has kept in rotation for decades.
The New York Post was the first to report on the trigger warning.
In its Turandot program notes, the Met describes Puccini’s opera as a “thrilling yet problematic masterpiece.”
“A Western projection of the East, it is rife with contradictions, distortions, and racial stereotypes,” the company states. Later, it warns: “We must also consider the criticisms that Turandot—and Puccini’s appropriation, reconfiguration, and reharmonization of Chinese music—has received in recent years.”
The Met also claims that Turandot is “difficult” for ethnic Chinese people to watch, but provided no evidence to support such a bizarre claim.
“It shouldn’t be surprising then that many audience members of Chinese descent find it difficult to watch as their own heritage is co-opted, fetishized, or painted as savage, bloodthirsty, or backward.”
Turandot is a staple of opera houses around the world. The aria “Nessun Dorma” is one of the most famous operatic arias ever written, and is often performed in concerts.
The Metropolitan Opera has fallen on hard times financially.
Met general manager Peter Gelb revealed earlier this year the company recently withdrew $40 million from its endowment, reducing it to about $255 million. Taking money out of an endowment is often seen as a measure of last resort for a non-profit arts company, usually when it is unable to cover costs through donations and ticket sales.
The decision came after the Met took $30 million from its endowment fund last season to help cover operating expenses amid weak ticket sales and a cash shortfall.
Like numerous other performing arts institutions, the Met embraced woke identity politics during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020.
The company hired a chief diversity officer and implemented “anti-racism” training for employees. It also stated at the time that it will aim to become a “more racially equitable institution.”
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