The first revival of David Bösch’s new production for The Royal Opera, with two casts including Maria Agresta, Lianna Haroutounian and Anita Rachvelishvili.

Franco Zeffirelli’s golden production stars the great dramatic soprano Nina Stemme as Turandot, the icy Chinese princess who has renounced all men. Marco Berti is Calàf, the unknown prince who solves Turandot’s riddles and wins her love. Anita Hartig sings Liù, the faithful slave girl who gives her life to save Calàf, and Alexander Tsymbalyuk is Timur. Paolo Carignani conducts.

To bring together again, for the first time since their premiere on a December evening in Moscow, Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta and ballet The Nutcracker, was the audacious challenge that Russian stage director Dmitri Tcherniakov accepted for the Palais Garnier in Paris in March 2016 : a revolutionary production, which was to become one of the key events of the Paris Opera season.

Visually this is a gripping production which captures the drama of this opera perfectly. It's downright exciting! and I found the singing, acting, and orchestral playing reasonably fine. I found only one major problem with it, a problem that kept Puccini for quite a few years. Turandot has been looking for an opportunity to kill Calif and Calif has singlemindedly tried to get Turandot to love and ...

The impulsive and charismatic Don Giovanni travels through Europe seducing women, accompanied by his long-suffering servant Leporello. But when Don Giovanni commits murder, he unleashes a dark power beyond his control. Kasper Holten’s production is rich in both colourful comedy and exhilarating drama. Set designs by Es Devlin (Les Troyens) and costume designs by Anja Vang Kragh (Stella McCartney,...