Turandot review – Opera North show how you solve a problem like Puccini

Town Hall, Leeds
This semi-staged version of Puccini’s experimental, grandiose final opera makes it more like an oratorio, and puts a bloodthirsty chorus at the centre of the action
It’s hard not to be slightly alarmed by the number of executions taking place at Leeds Town Hall. In 2005, Opera North staged Handel’s grand oratorio Saul here, which presented the grisly spectacle of Goliath’s head bleeding through a linen bag. A year later, Strauss’s Salome served the