Zhang Yimou calls his Turandot a 'masterpiece'.

DON'T think Zhang Yimou is content to rest on his success directing the opening and closing ceremonies for the Beijing Olympics last year. In October, Zhang will return to the Bird's Nest and attempt to outdo himself with a spectacular staging of Puccini's famous opera Turandot. Zhang is calling this project his "masterpiece".

Zhang and his production team from the Olympics hope to fill the 100,000-seat stadium for two nights of drama, costume, music and special effects.

Turandot tells the story of a beautiful Chinese princess who is desired by thousands of men. To win her love, would-be suitors must answer three riddles correctly. But the consequences for a wrong answer are severe: Any man who guesses incorrectly will be beheaded.

The Italian composer Puccini set the opera in China, but he didn't know much about the country. As a result, the story is full of historical errors and confused timelines.

Hoping to make the Bird's Nest production seem more authentic to a Chinese audience, designer Gao Guangjian combined details from six Chinese dynasties. "I deliberately scrambled the dynasties," he said, "so that it would be less obvious that this is a phony story."