Turandot

DRAMA LÍRICA EN TRES ACTOS

During the two years after "Il Trittico", Puccini could not find a subject for a new opera. Various projects were considered. He began setting to music "Christopher Sly" by Giovacchino Forzano, but then gave it up. This desperate situation changed when a conversation turned to "Turandot" during a lunch with Giuseppe Adami, the librettist of "La Rondine" and "Il Tabarro", and Renato Simoni,  who had adapted it for the stage. Puccini started working with his librettists, created characters with humanity and deep psychology, and also retained the "Commedia dell'Arte" in the three masks: Ping, Pang, Pong. The composer began the first act on January 1st 1921, and completed the orchestration in November 1922.

While he was working on the orchestration of the second act at the end of 1923, pains in his throat and persistent coughs began to give him trouble. However, the maestro decided to ignore it. In February 1924 he completed the second act. During the following months he worked fast on the orchestration of the third act up to the death of Liù. When the pains were more and more intense, Puccini decided consulting doctors. At first the diagnosis was rheumatic inflammation of the throat. In the autumn of 1924, Puccini began working with Toscanini, who was to be conductor of the première. Nevertheless, the two scenes beyond Liù's death were not written, because Puccini wanted to await the definite text of the duet of Turandot and Calaf to compose the transformation of Turandot's personality. On October 8th 1924, two days before he was diagnosed as having throat cancer, the disease that killed him a few weeks later Puccini accepted, at last, Adami's fourth version of the text of the duet. The composer was sent to a clinic in Brussels on November 4th. There, he continued to work on "Turandot". He was operated on the 24th of the same month, but five days later, he died of heart failure. When the maestro died on November 29th 1924, he left many pages of drafts for duet and the last scenes of Turandot. Toscanini wanted Riccardo Zandonai to complete this opera, but Puccini's son Tonio objected because he thought Zandonai was too famous. Finally they entrusted it to Franco Alfano who completed the opera six months later. On the night of the première, after Liù's death when the chorus sang, "Liù, bontà perdona! Liù, docezza, dormi! Oblia! Liù! Poesia!", Toscanini laid down his baton, while the curtain was lowered slowly, and faced the audience with the words "Here ends the opera, because at this point the Maestro died". The version that Alfano completed was given at the second performance. After Puccini's death, the question of whether "Turandot" should be performed as an incomplete opera or in Alfano's version was still undecided.

LIBRETTO by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni, after Carlo Gozzi (Turandotte, 1762).

Location: Peking (Beijing); Time: in the time of fairytales

Turandot: Rosa Raisa
Calaf: Miguel Fleta
Liù: Maria Zamboni
Timur: Carlo Walter
Ping: Giacomo Pimini
Pang: Emilio Venturini
Pong: Giuseppe Nessi

Conductor: Arturo Toscanini

 

PREMIÉRE OF ALFANO'S VERSION

Teatro alla Scala, Milan, April 26th 1926

ACT II: Ping, Pang and Pong reminisce about happier days before Turandot's bloody reign. The crowd gathers in the square. The Emperor Altoum dominates the scene. Miraculously Calaf's attempt has been successful and the people hail the victor. However the princess protests wildly and begs her father to declare the result null and void. Finally Calaf in turn offers Turandot a riddle because he doesn't want to take her by force, but by true love. He gives her an opportunity to be released from her obligation if she can discover his name by daybreak. Turandot accepts.

ACT III: Heralds announce that none shall sleep tonight on pain of death, until the Prince's name is discovered. Soldiers drag in Timur and Liù because they have been seen in the Prince's company. Liù, in order to save Timur, says that she alone knows the name. Turandot orders her to be tortured. Liù confesses that only her love for the prince, which Turandot will also come to know, makes her able to withstand the torments. She snatches a dagger from a solider and stabs herself. Calaf tears the veil from Turandot's face and embraces her, kisses her passionately and reveals his name to her. Turandot is transformed by his kiss. It is dawn and Turandot announces in front of the Emperor and the crowd that she knows the stranger's name - it is love.

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