Turandot

Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini died in 1924, and his opera was left unfinished. The music was completed by Franco Alfano and premiered on 25 April 1926, almost a year and a half after Puccini's death.
The opera is set in China and follows the Prince Calaf, who falls in love with the cold-hearted Princess Turandot. In order to win her hand in marriage, a suitor must solve three riddles, with a wrong answer resulting in his execution. Calaf passes the test, but Turandot refuses to marry him. He offers her a way out: if she is able to guess his name before dawn the next day, he will accept death.

Origin and pronunciation of the name

The title of the opera is derived from the Persian term Turandokht, a name frequently given to Central Asian princesses in Persian poetry. Turan is a region of Central Asia that was once part of the Persian Empire. Dokht is a contraction of dokhtar ; the kh and t are both pronounced.
Italian pronunciation dictionaries recommend pronouncing the final t. However, according to Puccini scholar Patrick Vincent Casali, the t is silent in the name of the opera and of its title character. Soprano Rosa Raisa, who created the title role, said that neither Puccini nor Arturo Toscanini, who conducted the first performances, ever pronounced the final t. Similarly, prominent Turandot Eva Turner did not pronounce the final t in television interviews. Casali maintains that the musical setting of many of Calaf's utterances of the name makes sounding the final t all but impossible.

Composition history

The beginnings of Turandot can likely be found in Haft Peykar, a twelfth-century epic by the Persian poet Nizami. One of the stories in Haft Peykar features a Russian princess. In 1722, François Pétis de la Croix published his Les Mille et un jours, a collection of stories which were purportedly taken from Middle Eastern folklore and mythologies. One of these stories, believed to be inspired by Nizami, features a cold princess named Turandokht. However, it has been speculated that many of de la Croix's 'translated' stories were his own original creations, with no actual basis in Middle Eastern cultures. De la Croix's story was adapted into a play, Turandot, by the Italian playwright Carlo Gozzi in 1762, which was then adapted by Friedrich Schiller into another play in 1801. It was Schiller's version that inspired Puccini to write the opera.
Puccini began working on Turandot in March 1920 after meeting with librettists Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. In his impatience, he began composition in January 1921, before Adami and Simoni had produced the text for the libretto. As with Madama Butterfly, Puccini strove for a semblance of authenticity by using music from the region, even commissioning a set of thirteen custom-made gongs. Baron Edoardo Fassini-Camossi, the former Italian diplomat to China, gave Puccini a music box that played 4 Chinese melodies. Puccini incorporated three of these melodies into his opera, the most memorable of which is the folk melody "Mòlìhuā ". "Mòlìhuā" serves as a leitmotif for Princess Turandot's splendor. In total, eight of the themes from Turandot appear to be based on traditional Chinese music and anthems.
By March 1924, Puccini had completed the opera up to the final duet. However, he was dissatisfied with the text of the final duet, and did not continue until 8 October, when he chose Adami's fourth version of the duet text. Two days later, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Puccini seems to have had some inkling of the seriousness of his condition: before leaving for Brussels for treatment, he visited Arturo Toscanini and begged him, "Don't let my Turandot die." He died of a heart attack on 29 November 1924.

Completion of the score after Puccini's death

When Puccini died, the first two of the three acts were fully composed, including the orchestration. Puccini had composed and fully orchestrated Act Three up until Liù's death and funeral cortege. In the sense of finished music, this was the last music composed by Puccini. He left behind 36 pages of sketches on 23 sheets for the end of Turandot. Some sketches were in the form of "piano-vocal" or "short score", including vocal lines with "two to four staves of accompaniment with occasional notes on orchestration." These sketches provided music for some, but not all, of the final portion of the libretto.
Puccini left instructions that Riccardo Zandonai should finish the opera. Puccini's son Tonio objected, and eventually Franco Alfano was chosen to flesh out the sketches after Vincenzo Tommasini and Pietro Mascagni were rejected. Puccini's publisher Tito Ricordi II decided on Alfano because his opera La leggenda di Sakùntala resembled Turandot in its setting and heavy orchestration. Alfano provided a first version of the ending with a few passages of his own, and even a few sentences added to the libretto, which was not considered complete even by Puccini. After the severe criticisms by Ricordi and the conductor Arturo Toscanini, he was forced to write a second, strictly censored version that followed Puccini's sketches more closely, to the point where he did not set some of Adami's text to music because Puccini had not indicated how he wanted it to sound. Ricordi's real concern was not the quality of Alfano's work; he wanted the end of Turandot to sound as if it had been written by Puccini. Of this version, about three minutes were cut for performance by Toscanini, and it is this shortened version that is usually performed today.

Performance history

Turandot premiered at the La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy, on 25 April 1926, a year and five months after Puccini's death. Rosa Raisa played Turandot. Tenors Miguel Fleta and Franco Lo Giudice alternated in the role of Prince Calaf, with Fleta singing the role on opening night. It was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. In the middle of Act III, the orchestra stopped playing. Toscanini turned to the audience and announced, "Qui finisce l'opera, perché a questo punto il maestro è morto". The curtain was then lowered. A reporter for La Stampa recorded the words slightly differently: "Qui finisce l'opera, rimasta incompiuta per la morte del povero Puccini". Others have reported that Toscanini said "Here, the Maestro laid down his pen." A newspaper report from 1926 states that Puccini asked Toscanini to stop the opera performance in the middle of Act III. The second and subsequent performances of the 1926 La Scala season included Alfano's ending.
Soon after its premiere in Milan, Turandot spread to other cities.

City	Location	Date of first performance	Starring	Conductor	Other information
Milan, Italy	La Scala	25 April 1926	Rosa Raisa as Turandot Miguel Fleta and Franco Lo Giudice as Calaf	Arturo Toscanini Ettore Panizza	Sources disagree on which conductor led the second and third performances. Toscanini biographer Harvey Sachs claims that Toscanini conducted the second and third performances before withdrawing due to nervous exhaustion. Other authors believe that Toscanini left after the first performance.
Rome, Italy	Teatro Costanzi	29 April 1926	Bianca Scacciati as Turandot Francesco Merli as Calaf	Edoardo Vitale
Buenos Aires, Argentina	Teatro Colón	23 June 1926	Claudia Muzio as Turandot Giacomo Lauri Volpi as Calaf	Gino Marinuzzi
Dresden, Germany	Staatsoper Dresden	6 September 1926	Anne Roselle as Turandot Richard Tauber as Calaf	Fritz Busch	Performed in German
Venice, Italy	La Fenice	9 September 1926	María Llácer-Casali as Turandot Antonio Bagnariol as Calaf	Gaetano Bavagnoli	-
Vienna, Austria	Vienna State Opera	14 October 1926	Lotte Lehmann as Turandot Leo Slezak as Calaf	Franz Schalk
Berlin, Germany	Staatsoper Berlin	8 November 1926	Mafalda Salvatini as Turandot Carl Martin Öhman as Calaf	Bruno Walter
New York City, United States	Metropolitan Opera	16 November 1926	Maria Jeritza as Turandot Giacomo Lauri Volpi as Calaf	Tullio Serafin
Brussels, Belgium	La Monnaie	17 December 1926	Jane Bonavia as Turandot Victor Verteneuil as Calaf	Corneille de Thoran	Performed in French.
Trieste, Italy	Teatro Verdi	22 December 1926	as Turandot Pedro Mirassou as Calaf	Gennaro Papi
Naples, Italy	Teatro di San Carlo	17 January 1927	Bianca Scacciati as Turandot Antonio Bagnariol as Calaf	Edoardo Vitale
Parma, Italy	Teatro Regio	12 February 1927	Elena Barrigar as Turandot Franco Lo Giudice as Calaf	Giuseppe Podestà
Bern, Switzerland	Bern Theatre	13 February 1927	Maria Nezádal as Turandot Peter Baust as Calaf	Dr. Albert Nef
Turin, Italy	Teatro Regio	17 March 1927	Linda Barla Ricci as Turandot Gennaro Barra-Caracciolo as Calaf	Gino Marinuzzi
Baltimore, Maryland, USA	Lyric Theatre Baltimore	18 April 1927	Florence Easton as Turandot Edward Johnson as Calaf	Tullio Serafin
Florence, Italy	Politeama Fiorentino	23 April 1927
Atlanta, Georgia, USA	Municipal Auditorium	27 April 1927	Florence Easton as Turandot Edward Johnson as Calaf	Tullio Serafin
Cleveland, Ohio, USA	Public Auditorium	3 May 1927	Florence Easton as Turandot Armand Tokatyan as Calaf	Tullio Serafin
London, United Kingdom	Covent Garden	8 June 1927	Bianca Scacciati as Turandot Francesco Merli as Calaf	Vincenzo Bellezza
San Francisco, United States	San Francisco Opera	19 September 1927	Anne Roselle as Turandot Armand Tokatyan as Calaf	Gaetano Merola
Bologna, Italy	Teatro Comunale di Bologna	29 October 1927	Linda Barla-Ricci as Turandot Antonio Melandri as Calaf	Gino Marinuzzi
Budapest, Hungary	Operaház	14 November 1927	as Turandot as Calaf	Nándor Rékai
Baku, Azerbaijan	Baku Opera	March 1928		Alexander Klibson	Performed in Russian.
Paris, France	Paris Opera	29 March 1928	Maryse Beaujon as Turandot Georges Thill as Calaf	Philippe Gaubert
Verona, Italy	Verona Arena	28 July 1928	Anne Roselle as Turandot George Thill as Calaf	Alfredo Padovani
Australia	His Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne	9 June 1928	Giannina Arangi-Lombardi as Turandot Francesco Merli as Calaf	Gaetano Bavagnoli
Kyiv, Ukraine	Kyiv Opera	September 1928		Aleksander Orlov	Performed in Ukrainian.
Barcelona, Spain	Gran Teatre del Liceu	30 December 1928	Iva Pacetti as Turandot as Calaf	Alfredo Padovani
Belgrade, Serbia	National Theatre	28 June 1930		Lovro von Matačić
Moscow, Russia	Bolshoi Theatre	12 December 1931	Kseniya Derzhinskaya as Turandot Boris Evlakhov as Calaf	Lev Steinberg	Performed in Russian, translated by Pavel Antokolsky. 39 performances until 1934

For many years, the government of the People's Republic of China forbade performance of Turandot because they said it portrayed China and the Chinese unfavorably. Instead of a single nationwide decree against it, any attempts to produce it were not approved. In the late 1990s they relented, and in September 1998 the opera was performed for eight nights as Turandot at the Forbidden City, complete with opulent sets and soldiers from the People's Liberation Army as extras. It was an international collaboration, with director Zhang Yimou as choreographer and Zubin Mehta as conductor. The singing roles saw Giovanna Casolla, Audrey Stottler, and Sharon Sweet as Princess Turandot; Sergej Larin and Lando Bartolini as Calaf; and Barbara Frittoli, Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, and Barbara Hendricks as Liù.
The aria "Nessun dorma" has long been a staple of operatic recitals. Luciano Pavarotti popularized the piece beyond the opera world in the 1990s with his performance of it for the 1990 World Cup, which received a global audience. Both Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo released singles of the aria, with Pavarotti's reaching number 2 in the UK. The Three Tenors performed the aria at three subsequent World Cup Finals, in 1994 in Los Angeles, 1998 in Paris, and 2002 in Yokohama. Many crossover and pop artists have performed and recorded it and the aria has been used in the soundtracks of numerous films. Turandot is a staple of the standard operatic repertoire and it appears as number 17 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.