Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot” will be performed for the first time on the stage of the Krakow Opera on Friday, March 25. Bogusław Nowak, director of the Krakow Opera, said that Krakow had been waiting for this opera for over 60 years.

“Turandot” is considered to be the composer’s undisputed masterpiece, exceeding his “Bohemia”, “Tosca” or “Madame Butterfly”.

Piotr Kamiński wrote that Puccini’s harmonic vocabulary had never been so audacious and innovative, hiding its bravado behind the flowing naturalness; from the beginning it deceives and charms the most conservative listeners.

Tomasz Tokarczyk, the music director of the Krakow Opera, is working on the interpretation of the music of Puccini’s masterpiece. In the Turandot opera, the viewers will hear Wioletta Chodowicz and Agnieszka Kuk. Tomasz Kuk and Dominik Sutowicz will perform in the role of Kalaf, the most difficult of all tenor parts by Puccini.

The director of the show is Karolina Sofulak, who made her debut at Opera North in Great Britain. She was the first Pole to win the international competition for the European Opera Directing Prize in Zurich. She often directs on music stages in Europe. In Poland, she collaborated with operas in Gdańsk, Poznań, Bytom and the Krakow festival Opera Rara, where she directed Dvořák’s “Vanda” in 2020, and in this year Peter Eötvös’s “The Golden Dragon” – a story about the drama of emigration. In December 2021, Sofulak directed Verdi’s “Masquerade” at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen.

“Turandot” is the last and unfinished opera by the Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini. The story of the “Ice Princess”, condemning to death the claimants to her hand who fail to solve three puzzles correctly, has its origins in the works of the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami.

Adrian Andrzejewski