Size: 43 x 52 cm

Status: in private property

Ghosts of Turandot

My thoughts have been occupied by the topic of Turandot for a year already. We saw this opera in 2019 in the Margaret Island Open Air Theatre. The call was José Cura but the performances of the ladies, Szilvia Ralik and Cristina Pasariou was also excellent. Although I wanted to do at once but did not succeed in expressing my feelings towards the opera that time. This summer, however, we participated in the opening concert of the Eiffel Art Studios of the Budapest Opera when we listened also to Turandot’s famous aria when she sings about the tragic fate of her ancestress which was permanently calling for vengeance. Listening to this aria my thoughts clogged together.  The centre figure of my picture is Turandot, the very nice, inaccessive and ice hearted beauty. Behind her stands the ghost of the violated and murdered ancestress for whom Turandot takes vengeance on the long row of potential grooms. The love of the Tataric Prince Calaf inflames her heart but the ghosts of the killed princes remain with her.

I worked much on this picture, mostly to find how to portray the faces. Almost nothing was successful for the first endeavour. Together with the many stamps used one can see a cross stitch on it too. I found the dragon somewhere in the depths of a drawer, I had made it years before and was happy to find it this time.

I did not even start the picture when a good friend of mine came to us, she was interested in my picture “Golden Summer”. She was already leaving when asked me what was I working on? I told her my plans related to Turandot. She started to stare on me shockingly. I did not understand what happened. When she was able to speak again she told me that this was her favourite opera and the story behind the opera had occupied her for a long time. She needed this picture, therefore! Thus she left. When I am writing these words the picture hangs in her living room.