On the centenary of the world premiere of Turandot at La Scala, Villa Borromeo in Viggiù hosts the exhibition At the Origins of Turandot | Renato Simoni, a journey through the origins and transformations of Giacomo Puccini’s celebrated opera.

Through documents, photographs, books and historical materials, the exhibition traces the long evolution of the legend, from the ancient Persian tale to Puccini’s masterpiece, placing special emphasis on the figure of Renato Simoni, co-author of the Turandot libretto.

Highlights include:

• 18 July: Presentation of the illustrated book Turandot, a Fairy Tale in Verse.
• 1 August: Talk: Viggiù in the 1920s.
• 8 August: Sounds of Wonder, dedicated to music boxes, phonographs and gramophones from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
• 29 August: Turno’s Tales, featuring stories and poems by Renato Simoni.
• 5 September: The Turandot Walk and the concert-performance Giulio Ricordi: A Sound Chronicle of Bourgeois Leisure Time.
• 26 September: Staged reading of The Delizia College.

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