Turandot

The Chinese princess Turandot refuses marriage and demonstrates this with a gruesome ritual: Every suitor who fails to solve her three riddles is beheaded. This brutal cycle continues until Calaf breaks it. With his last, unfinished opera, Turandot, Giacomo Puccini created an unparalleled score that went beyond the famous «Nessun dorma.» To depict a fantastical, fairytale China, he blended traditional Chinese music, pentatonic scales, unusual timbres and stark dissonances into a soundscape that oscillates between lyrical delicacy and brutal force. Franco Alfano completed the opera and wrote an unusually conciliatory ending for Puccini, which is countered in this production by Lorenzo Fioroni: In a timeless state reminiscent of contemporary military dictatorships, brutality and trauma remain omnipresent. Camilla Nylund, known for her incomparable Wagner and Strauss portraits, can be seen here in the challenging title role in the Italian repertoire.