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Libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni
Based on Turandot, by Carlo Gozzi
Left unfinished, the last act was completed by Franco Alfano.
Premiere: Milan, April 25, 1926
The Setting:
Within the walls of the Forbidden City, China
ACT I: Pavilion in the Imperial Palace. Peking, legendary times. In a quarter swarming with people near the Forbidden City, a Mandarin reads an edict: any prince seeking to marry Princess Turandot must answer three riddles - and if he fails, he will die. Her latest suitor, the Prince of Persia, is to be executed at the rise of the moon. The doomed suitor passes on the way to execution, moving the onlookers to call upon Turandot to spare his life. Turandot appears and, with a contemptuous gesture, bids the execution proceed. Calāf, smitten with the princess' beauty, determines to win her as his bride, striding to the gong that proclaims the arrival of a new suitor. Calāf strikes the fatal gong and calls out Turandot's name.
ACT II: A square outside the palace. Turandot enters and tells the story of her ancestor Princess Lou-Ling, brutally slain by a conquering prince; in revenge Turandot has turned against all men, determining that none shall ever possess her. She poses her first question: what is born each night and dies each dawn? "Hope," Calāf answers correctly. Unnerved, Turandot continues: what flickers red and warm like a flame, yet is not fire? "Blood," replies Calāf after a moment's pause. Shaken, Turandot delivers her third riddle: what is like ice but burns? A tense silence prevails until Calāf triumphantly cries "Turandot!" Calāf generously offers Turandot a riddle of his own: if she can learn his name by dawn, he will forfeit his life.
ACT III: Gardens of the Palace. In a palace garden, Calāf hears a proclamation: on pain of death, no one in Peking shall sleep until Turandot learns the stranger's name. As the fearful mob threatens Calāf with drawn daggers to learn his name, soldiers drag in Lių and Timur. When Turandot appears, commanding the dazed Timur to speak, Lių cries out that she alone knows the stranger's identity. Though tortured, she remains silent. Impressed by such endurance, Turandot asks Lių's secret; "Love," the girl replies. When the princess signals the soldiers to intensify the torture, Lių snatches a dagger from one of them and kills herself. Turandot remains alone to confront Calāf, who at length takes her in his arms, forcing her to kiss him. Knowing physical passion for the first time, Turandot weeps. The prince, now sure of his victory, tells her his name.
As the people hail the emperor, Turandot approaches his throne, announcing that the stranger's name is - Love.
by John W. Freeman
--Courtesy of Opera News |
