Turandot poster – Leopoldo Metlicovitz – 1926

Turandot poster – Leopoldo Metlicovitz – 1926

This vintage opera poster was created by the renowned artist Leopoldo Metlicovitz. It was produced to advertise the world premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s last opera “Turandot”. The opera, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, was performed at Teatro alla Scala (La Scala) on 25 April 1926.

“Turandot” is still one of the most popular operas in Italian music history. To this day, the piece about the fate of a cruel Chinese princess is regularly performed at opera houses around the world including La Scala. At the time, Puccini’s masterpiece was published by Edizioni Ricordi, part of Casa Ricordi, the historic Italian music publisher. Puccini passed away shortly before the opera was completed. Puccini’s three-act opera was posthumously completed by Franco Alfano and set to a libretto in Italian by Guiseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Its best-known aria is Nessun Dorma.

Leopoldo Metlicovitz worked as a poster artist, illustrator and stage designer. He worked with Giulio Ricordi and Casa Ricordi at Officine Ricord, an off-shoot of the recording company, that was basically an Advertising Studio. In addition to gramophone record covers and posters for the label’s artists such as Verdi and Puccini, Metlicovitz would produce advertising posters for many companies. Metlicovitz would produce work for the Mele Department Stores, the Universal Exposition, Fernet Branca, and the Musica e musicisti and Ars et Labor magazines. He also worked in the launch of the 1930s silent screen blockbuster Cabiria. Together with Leonetto Cappiello, Adolf Hohenstein, Giovanni Maria Mataloni and Marcello Dudovich, Metlicovitz is considered one of the fathers of modern Italian poster design.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints