Munich Opera Festival: Turandot
National Theatre
June 30th, 2026-July 6th, 2026
Role: Liu
Composer Giacomo Puccini. Libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni after Carlo Gozzi.
Lyrical drama in three acts (five scenes) - 1926
In Italian · With subtitles in German and English.
Duration approx. 2 hours 55 minutes
The people are in a frenzy: The public beheading of another of the ruler's suitors is imminent. Princess Turandot will never belong to a man. Therefore, anyone who wishes to marry her must solve three riddles. Those who fail to do so pay with their lives. An unknown prince, repelled by Turandot's cruelty but attracted by her beauty, takes this life-threatening risk again – and solves the riddles. But has he thereby awakened the cold, man-murdering ruler to love and put an end to the cruelties?
Turandot is Giacomo Puccini's last opera. He died at a time when he had been stalled with the composition due to a hitherto unresolved dramaturgical problem: The princess was meant to be a counter-proposal to the anti-feminism of the fin de siècle. But how was he supposed to realize the transformation of the man-murderer into a lover? Puccini left the final love scene between Turandot and Calaf unfinished.
Bavarian State Orchestra
Bavarian State Opera Choir, Extra Choir and Children's Choir of the Bavarian State Opera