My first opera of the year was Turandot, a co-production with Malmö Opera, which has received varied reviews in the newspapers. Helsingin Sanomat writes of it being of orientalistic prettiness, conventional and static, but having good singers, while Hufvudstadsbladet says it is excellent although a bit static, and the provincial Etelä-Suomen Sanomat thinks that it is visually lovely, even though the singers could have been better.

Meanwhile the director Sofia Adrian Jupither says: "--- Traditionally Turandot has featured dated gender roles, misogyny, and racist stereotypes. It is particularly important for the future of the entire opera art form that these problematic themes are discussed, as that is the only way we can make a difference to them. Together with the creative team we have aimed to remove all the dated layers of the performance tradition from our production. This approach to Turandot is our humble attempt to find ways of making central works of operatic history viable the modern day." Astonishing. I could see no trace of these thoughts in the performance, which probably would have delighted the audience of the first performance of Turandot in the Helsinki of 1929. If one wants to remove dated layers, why set it in a very decorative fairytale China of the past? A different time and place could have been possible, and apparently such productions also exist.

Either way, I enjoyed it far beyond my expectations, which admittedly were not very high as the long past Turandot of my memories was bland and thin. However, this was the opposite, rich and full. Strangely enough, my eyelids started drooping after Liù's death. Surely it can't have been the change in composer? But all in all, it was a very enjoyable experience that I would not mind repeating.