A dazzling one-act opera, a journey into the psyche of a betrayed woman, consumed by rage and abandonment—feelings that awaken ancient, blood-soaked codes of honour. If Giovanni Verga’s eponymous novella has, over time, shaped the imagination of all Sicilian dramas of jealousy, this is also due to the music of Pietro Mascagni: direct, immediate, rough, with a special luminosity in evoking the landscape of the small town of Vizzini and a sudden violence in the eruption of passions. The emotional impact on the listener has endured since, to quote Sciascia, “the cry ‘they have killed compadre Turiddu’ for the first time sent a shiver down the spine of opera lovers.”

Cavalleria rusticana

Teatro Regio di Torino

Teatro Massimo di Palermo

“Al’alba vincerò - at sunrise I will win“, the unknown prince bawls out to the city, making him one of the few heroes of Italian opera whose arioso sleeplessness is due to confidence rather than despair. The others have to despair instead. Primarily the inhabitants of the city, in which – “nessun dorma“ – no one is allowed to sleep because everyone has to search for the name of the unknown man on the highest orders and under threat of the death penalty. That Turandot should actually end well by Puccini’s standards can be felt – like so much else – in the central tenor aria of the work. Puccini knew better than anyone how to force an emotional involvement on the audience through the merciless immediacy of his musical language. The piece itself ends happily, albeit without Puccini, who had to lay down his arms in his battle against laryngeal cancer before the finale was finished. And so Turandot joins the ranks of the great opera fragments of the 20th century. But not only is the piece more or less a chimera, the title character herself also seems to be primarily a projection: “Turandot does not exist! Only nothingness exists“, Ping, Pang and Pong warn the unknown prince to prevent him from attempting the three riddles that need to be solved in order to win the emperor’s daughter Turandot. Anna Sophie Mahler, whose Stuttgart production of Saint François d’Assise 2023 was named the “most unusual opera experience of the year“ by the journal Opernwelt, will set out 100 years after the premiere of Puccini’s enigmatic last opera in search of the “fluid of love“ with which the composer wanted to pacify nerves stretched to the limit in the opera’s finale. Because, this much is certain: this fluidum would also be useful today.

Turandot

Stuttgart Opera

It is a game of life and death initiated by the elusive Princess Turandot: each suitor for her hand must solve three riddles. Failure means execution. And so far, no prince has been able to win the great prize. But then a stranger arrives in the kingdom of Turandot, Prince Calaf, who is determined to take on the challenge. When he solves the riddles and claims the princess in marriage as agreed, he encounters a frightened woman who refuses to wed the stranger – and now the princess becomes the tortured one, for she must find out the prince’s name in order to keep her freedom. Unfinished at his death, Giacomo Puccini’s final opera was premiered as a fragment in 1926. This is a multi-layered masterpiece of great emotional intensity, musical brilliance and unique in its use of exotic Chinese melody. French stage director Marie-Eve Signeyrole makes her Semperoper debut with this operatic thriller.

Semperoper Dresden

When the Khedive of Egypt wanted to open his new opera house, whom else but to Giuseppe Verdi would the commission for an Egyptian opera go? The Franco-Prussian War unfortunately intervened and Aïda’s sets and costumes got stuck in Paris; Rigoletto was performed instead. But Aïda finally received its world premiere in Cairo on Christmas Eve in 1871.

Aïda

Hong Kong Cultural Center

“The artist is a man, and he must write for men. … and you will see true hatred and its bitter fruit.” In the Pagliacci prologue, Tonio tells us what this opera is about – it seeks to put the reality of life on the stage. This applies for both works, which will now enjoy their first new staging at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 46 years (1978). Together Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo simply exemplify verismo. The basic situation: A woman is unfaithful. Another reveals this to the husband, and he, spurred on by this woman, takes bloody revenge on the lover. Cavalleria rusticana is about Turiddu, who returns to find his old flame Lola again, but she is now married to the carter, Alfio. Turiddu then consoles himself by seducing Santuzza. But the old love is reignited, and Lola betrays her husband, and Turiddu his girlfriend. In Pagliacci, the plot revolves around Nedda and her husband Canio, the leader of a group of comedians. Nedda’s love for him has grown cold, so she turns to the farmer, Silvio. 

Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci

Max-Joseph-Platz

An opéra comique with a tragic ending that depicts the eternal game of passion and torturous jealousy, and whose fiery music continues to appeal to audiences worldwide – that is Bizet’s Carmen. Idiosyncratic, memorable characters suffer the ultimately fatal consequences of their alternating attraction and repulsion.

Carmen

Bebelplatz

An officer, an unattainable love and a deadly secret: Hermann loves Lisa, who is under the care of the old countess, but as a penniless outsider, his path to her remains blocked.

The Queen of Spades

Vienna State Opera

Love and duty collide as nations clash. Verdi’s sharply relevant opera of love and war returns, with Angel Blue and Ivan Gyngazov as the doomed lovers. Michele Mariotti conducts.

Ivan Gyngazov

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 13 - Nov 21, 2026

Cavalleria rusticana · Teatro Regio Torino

12 - 27 Mar, 2027

The Queen of Spades · Wiener Staatsoper

May 19 - Jun 12, 2027

Aida · Royal Opera House

Past events

Oct 13 - Nov 21, 2026

Cavalleria rusticana · Teatro Regio Torino

12 - 20 Sep, 2026

Cavalleria rusticana · Teatro Massimo

Future and recently performed repertoire

Calaf in Turandot by Puccini

Semperoper Dresden

Kalaf in Turandot by Puccini

Staatsoper Stuttgart

Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni

Teatro Massimo

Hermann in The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky

Wiener Staatsoper

Radames in Aida by Verdi

Royal Opera House

Radamès in Aida by Verdi

Opera Hong Kong

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