To the blood-thirsty Chinese princess’s three riddles, let’s add one more. Will the superhuman title role be the fearless Asmik Grigorian’s Waterloo? By historic standards, Grigorian’s soprano hardly qualifies as a heroic instrument. Yet over the past decade, she has delivered spellbinding performances across a vast, improbably heavyweight repertoire. We’re rooting for her. Artists of her musicality and theatrical savvy are the rarest of the rare. But how long can she keep this up? In the December run of these performances, the Unknown Prince who overcomes the icy Turandot’s resistance is Jonas Kaufmann, a matinee idol who also has the vocal goods. In June, Fabio Sartori steps in—a swell tenor of the old school, with the ringing tone and the silhouette the phrase perhaps implies. —Matthew Gurewitsch