Facing torture, a servant girl turns her eyes to the heavens and sings of love. Her soprano voice swirls high and fills the room as she declares her resolve of unrequited devotion to a prince in disguise. After her heart-wrenching aria, there is a moment of stunned silence before the audience erupts in applause. Such was a scene from Puccini’s Turandot staged at Penang’s Dewan Sri Pinang in 2003. The opera, followed by Carmen that was staged the year after, was among the last large-scale performances by the Penang Arts Council (PAC) that brought numerous operas and operettas to Penang.