Turandot
Turandot became Giacomo Puccini’s final opera and is today immensely beloved worldwide. This is the operatic tale of an oppressed people under an imperial dynasty in China. The merciless Princess Turandot is set to marry according to tradition but refuses to face the same fate as an ancestor who was murdered after getting married. She does not want to be reduced to being subordinate to a man and has therefore, in order to delay marriage, imposed the condition that a suitor must correctly answer three riddles. If the suitor fails, he is executed.
Puccini wrote this opera while he was very ill and never managed to complete the work. Instead, his student Alfano finished it according to Puccini’s notes. Since its premiere in 1926 at La Scala in Milan, Turandot has held an unquestioned place in the repertoire of major opera houses. The magnificent music and the setting at the centre of power in China is very captivating, not least through the challenging vocal parts that demands dramatic voices.
By the summer of 2025, we will be able to offer our audience this beloved opera, with the famous aria Nessun dorma, in one of the world’s most unique opera houses, a former sawmill located by the shore of a vast lake, now famous for its acoustics. It is now possible to buy tickets for the first five performances.