Giacomo Puccini's famous opera, "Turandot," will be performed at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Aug. 5 to 7.

It will be the NCPA's seventh staging of the opera since the theatre was established in 2007. The NCPA's version is an original work composed by the theatre that includes an 18-minute sequel by Hao Weiya, the third composer in the world and the first Chinese artist to complete Puccini's masterpiece.

Acclaimed female sopranos Sun Xiuwei and Shen Na will play Princess Turandot, while soprano Dai Yuqiang will share the role of Prince Calaf with a South Korean singer.

"Turandot" is a love story of mystery. Turandot is a beautiful, though coldhearted, Chinese princess. Any prince who wants to marry her has to answer three riddles. If he fails, he will be sentenced to death. After three princes have lost their lives, an unknown prince, who is in exile in China, falls in love with Turandot. He successfully answers the riddles but then offers Turandot a riddle of his own: If she guesses his name by dawn, he will forfeit his life. Turandot captures his father and his maid Liu and tortures them to tell her the prince's name. Liu kills herself to keep the secret, which shocks Turandot's cold heart. Turandot is finally moved by the love and marries the prince.

In the past three years, NCPA has organized a total of 12 performance seasons and almost 4,000 shows, including 1,584 public-benefit performances and 2,223 commercial performances.

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