From Opera Holland Park’s foundation in 1996, Puccini has been central to the company’s programming. From multiple productions of La bohème, Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly and La rondine across three decades to individual highlights including the Royal Philharmonic Society Award-nominated 2015 production of Il Trittico, our first staging of Le Villi in 2023 and the triumphant 2024 revival of Stephen Barlow’s ground-breaking 2012 production of Tosca, our work has included a semi-staging of the early romance, Edgar and a concert performance of the Messa di Gloria. In 2026, following Martin Lloyd-Evans’s new production of La fanciulla del West, the company’s third staging of this opera, we complete this journey of discovery with a concert staging of Puccini’s final opera, Turandot, completed after the composer’s death in 1924 by Franco Alfano.

Conducted by Naomi Woo (Edgar 2024), Turandot continues the 2026 Season’s themes of deception and disguise, its heavily perfumed score the final expression of late romantic Italian opera’s fascination with the Far East. Director Eleanor Burke makes her much anticipated company debut with this concert staging, with a cast led by tenor José de Eça (Tosca 2024, Lucia di Lammermoor 2025, La fanciulla del West 2026) as Calaf, the unknown prince who must solve the riddles of the Ice Princess, Turandot, or lose his head. Last seen at Opera Holland Park in the role of Vivetta in L’arlesiana in 2019, soprano Fflur Wyn makes her role debut as Liù. Further casting will be announced in the coming months.