Tomas Pavilionis

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.

A general and his stepdaughter are both heavily in debt. When the family's tutor, in love with the girl, gets lucky at the gambling table, he tries to rescue her from her desperate situation, but she outright rejects him. Prokofiev's first full-length opera The Gambler, based on Dostoyevsky's partly autobiographical novella ironically written to settle gambling debts, is rarely performed today. This 2020 production brings together director Vasily Barkhatov and conductor Modestas Pitrenas and stars the winner of the 2019 International Opera Award, Asmik Grigorian, in the role of Polina.