| Donnerstag 16 Februar 2023 | 18:00 |
| Puccini, Giacomo (1858-1924) | Turandot | Libretto von Renato Simoni, Giuseppe Adami |
| Finnish National Opera | ||
| Pietro Rizzo | Dirigent | |
| Sofia Jupither | Regisseur | |
| Erlend Birkeland | Bühnenbild | |
| Maria Geber | Kostüme | |
| Ellen Ruge | Licht | |
| Orchestra of the Finnish National Opera | ||
| Finnish National Opera Chorus | ||
| Astrik Khanamiryan | Sopran | Turandot |
| Mikheil Sheshaberidze | Tenor | Der unbekannte Prinz (Kalaf) |
| Reetta Haavisto | Sopran | Liù |
| Matti Turunen | Bass | Timur |
| Jussi Miilunpalo | Tenor | Kaiser Altoum |
| Jussi Merikanto | Bariton | Ping |
| Mika Pohjonen | Tenor | Pang |
| Tomas Pavilionis | Tenor | Pong |
| Aapo Kilpelä | Bariton | Mandarin |
A beautiful Chinese princess has issued a decree for her suitors: whoever cannot solve her riddles to win her hand will be beheaded. As unlucky suitors fail and fall, up steps Calaf, a prince of the Tatar people.
The new, visually stunning version of Puccini’s Turandot at the Finnish National Opera delivers a universal message: regardless of who we are or where we come from, we are all looking for love. Director Sofia Jupither sets out to focus on the essence of Puccini’s interest in private and the public lives, power and responsibility, love and vulnerability. Puccini composed the opera in the heyday of exoticism and orientalism; an Europe-centric view of the Far East is in danger of distancing modern audiences from Puccini’s masterpiece. As Jupither describes in the interview below, her ambition is to pull down decades-old stereotypes embedded in the work and show the people beneath them, revealing the central themes of the opera, the psychology of the characters and a story of our society today.
