Puccini’s Turandot, with its combination of myth, ritual and emotional extremity, suits dark evenings and the build-up to Christmas, when audiences seem especially ready for spectacle and intensity.

This Orientalist classic, left unfinished, has had to be completed since Puccini’s death. A new version hands that task to artists with Asian roots. Puccini’s “Turandot” at the Metropolitan Opera, in ...