Turandot at Savonlinna Opera Festival: a riddle inside an enigma

Matti Turunen (Timur) and Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir

Turandot

Tuuli Takala (Liù), Matti Turunen (Timur) and Amadi Lagha (Calaf)

Ewa Płonka (Turandot)

Einar Dagur Jónsson (Pang)

By Mark Pullinger, 06 July 2025

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“Ping, Pang and Pong, here cane-twirling Chaplinesque manipulators with a taste for the grotesque”

Reviewed at Olavinlinna Castle, Savonlinna on 5 July 2025

Puccini, Turandot

Yves Abel, Conductor

Pet Halmen, Director, Set Designer, Costume Designer, Lighting Designer

Savonlinna Opera Festival Orchestra

Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir

Roman Hovenbitzer, Revival Director

Ewa Płonka, Turandot

Amadi Lagha, Calaf

Tuuli Takala, Liù

Matti Turunen, Timur

Veikko Vallinoja, Emperor Altoum

Waltteri Torikka, Ping

Einar Dagur Jónsson, Pang

Aljaž Žgavc, Pong

Riku Pelo, Mandarin

Savonlinna Opera Festival Children's Choir

Dreams and reality: a brilliant Daphne in Vienna

Ako Imamura, 4th December

The Wiener Staatsoper revives a beautiful production of Daphne that juxtaposes myth, dream and reality, with brilliant vocal performances by the two leads.

****1

Lorbeeren für Vera-Lotte Boecker: Daphne an der Wiener Staatsoper

Snapdragon, 15th September

Vera-Lotte Boecker springt kurzfristig ein – und dominiert den Strauss-Abend am Haus am Ring.

****1

Peter Grimes drops anchor again at The Royal Opera

Christopher Woodley, 5th May

Allan Clayton and Sir Bryn Terfel lead a strong cast in a revival of Deborah Warner's dark staging of Britten's signature work at Covent Garden.

****1

The early flowering of opera: a fragrant L’Orfeo at Schwetzingen

Mengguang Huang, 3rd May

Markus Bothe’s Botticelli-inspired production fuses tableau vivant aesthetics with Jörg Halubek’s surgical musical precision, offering a peerless, vivid tribute to the fragrant dawn of opera.

****1

Boston Doodle Dandy: Boston Lyric Opera presents La Fille du régiment

Kevin Wells, 1st May

Very few singers can hold an audience in the palm of their hand the way Brenda Rae as Marie does in this rollicking frolic.

****1

Two funerals and a bedding at the Linbury Theatre

Eleanor Knight, 1st May

Tales of love and loss as operas by Elena Langer, Charlotte Bray and Elizabeth Maconchy form a varied triple bill in this showcase for The Royal Opera’s Jette Parker Artists.

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

A riddle inside an enigma: Turandot at Savonlinna Opera Festival