In 2008, Turandot, the first NCPA production, was premiered, and this time-honoured legend of Oriental Love was described from a Chinese perspective. On June 20^th-23^rd, the NCPA production of Turandot, will usher in the 10^th round.

Puccini's unfinished work Turandot is one of the three works under exotic themes set to a libretto. With the Great Capital of the Yuan Dynasty (current Beijing) as the background, the opera tells the legendary story between Prince Calaf of Tartary and Princess Turandot who undergo the tests and trials of life and death, and still enjoy a happy ending in the name of love. In order to create a real and sensible oriental atmosphere, Puccini not only applies the tune of Jasmine Flower to dominate the whole opera, but also takes advantage of pentatonic-scale folk melody lines, bell, gong, drum and other Chinese-style musical instruments. The vivid music language is highly favoured by global audiences.

In March 2008, this world-class classic, which took a new look full of Chinese connotations, made its debut on the NCPA stage. Thanks to Chinese composer HAO Weiya’s original 18-minute finale, more full-fledged and moving images of a Chinese princess holding the spotlight. Director CHEN Xinyi endows Turandot with the brilliance of humanity from the unique oriental perspective. Set designer GAO Guangjian demonstrates the most authentic Chinese charm with magnificent stage settings. Since its premiere, this production has been presented for more than 30 sessions in nine rounds. In 2011, Turandot went on tour in South Korea, and aroused enthusiastic responses far and wide.

For the upcoming 10^th round, under the baton of LÜ Jia (Music Director and Artistic Director of the NCPA),Turandot full of Chinese elements will be jointly presented by the China NCPA Orchestraand China NCPA Choir. As a core role of the whole opera, Princess Turandot marks the pinnacle of the dramatic soprano due to challenging singing skills and distinctive character interpretations. This time, sopranos Maida Hundeling and SUN Xiuwei will respectively play the leading female role of “coldhearted” Princess Turandot with athirst for true love. The world-famous tenors Amadi Lagha and Warren Mok will respectively play the leading male role of Prince Calaf, and sing the most famous aria Nessun Dorma. The kind and passionate maid Liù will present the sacredness and power of love under the interpretation of the famous sopranos Ekaterina Bakanova and YAO Hong. Meanwhile, NCPA Resident Artists ZHANG Yang, KOU Jing and JIN Zhengjian will play the roles of three ministers Ping, Pang and Pong, respectively, thereby adding humour to Turandot.