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Turandot
Giacomo Puccini
November 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th - 2004
Three impossible riddles - to solve them is to win the hand of the beautiful, but icy Princess Turandot. Many suitors have failed and sacrificed their heads for their efforts. Calaf is determined to answer the questions, keep his head and win her hand. Will he succeed when all others have not? |
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ACT 1
A public square in Peking beneath the city ramparts, with the imperial palace to one side From a bastion a Mandarin proclaims the Emperor’s decree: the Princess Turandot shall wed the first suitor of royal lineage who succeeds in solving her three riddles; all who fail will be executed. The Prince of Persia ‘whom fortune has not favoured’ is due to be beheaded when the moon rises. The crowd surges forward in eager anticipation, only to be brutally repulsed by the imperial guards. As their shouts turn to groans and lamentations, the stark, bitonal flourishes of the orchestra give way to a broad, characteristically Puccinian, drooping melody. In the scrimmage an old blind man is knocked to the ground. The girl accompanying him calls for help. Their rescuer is the disguised Prince Calaf, who recognizes the old man as his father, Timur, exiled King of Tartary. Both are in flight from their country’s enemies. Timur’s companion is the slave-girl Liù, who decided to share the family’s sufferings when Calaf bestowed a smile on her long ago. The hectic motion is resumed as the Executioner’s men arrive and begin sharpening the axe. The general blood-lust is conveyed in a fierce ostinato of varied phrase-lengths, yielding to a mood of rapt reverie as all pray for the moon to appear. Slowly the scene fills with a silvery light, reflected in a diaphanous tissue of harmony and scoring. As the culminating cry of ‘Pu-Tin-Pao’ (the Executioner’s name) subsides, a chorus of boys is heard approaching. Their chant (‘Là, sui monti dell’est’) is a version of the Chinese folksong ‘Moo-Lee-Vha’ and will stand for Turandot in her official capacity. Next comes the procession that escorts the Prince of Persia to the scaffold (her Puccini uses a modal idiom with sharpened 4th). The young man’s looks and dignified bearing move the crowd to pity and they call on the Princess to spare his life, but she confirms his sentence with a silent gesture. Timur, Calaf and Liù are left alone in the square. From far off the Prince of Persia invokes the name of Turandot as the axe falls. But Calaf has been so overwhelmed by the Princess’s beauty that he is determined to try his fortune with her, despite his father’s remonstrances. He is about to strike the gong and issue his challenge when the masks, Ping, Pang and Pong, rush in and restrain him. To fragments of the Chinese national hymn set out in alternations of duple and triple time, they try to deflect Calaf from his purpose. From the balcony the Princess’s handmaidens call for silence – their mistress is sleeping. The masks pay no heed and continue their persuasions. The ghosts of former suitors materialize on the battlements, each bewailing his unrequited love. The masks point to where the Executioner appears bearing the Prince of Persia’s severed head. Timur joins his plea to theirs. In her pentatonic arietta (‘Signore, ascolta’) Liù makes a last appeal, to which Calaf, deeply moved, replies (‘Non piangere, Liù’), recommending Timur to her care should he himself fail the test. As he continues to hold out, the music develops into a broadly swaying tug-of-war based on alternating chords and reinforced by the full chorus singing offstage. At the climax Calaf strikes the gong three times. Liù and Timur are in despair.
ACT 2.i
A pavilion Ping, Pang and Pong are preparing for either eventuality – a wedding or a funeral. They reflect on China’s misery ever since Turandot came to power. From ministers of state they have become servants of the Executioner. In an andantino of nostalgia (‘Ho una casa nell’Honan’) each recalls his home in the peace of the countryside. Memories of Turandot’s past victims, evoked by sung by an unseen chorus, give way to hopes that the man has been found who can tame her and restore tranquillity to the land. To the sound of trumpets the palace wakes to life, and the music continues without a break into scene ii.
ACT 2.ii
The palace courtyard Gradually a crowd assembles. The various dignitaries take their places, among them the eight wise men, each bearing three scrolls. High up on an ivory throne sits the Emperor Altoum. In an old man’s quavering voice he tries in vain to dissuade Calaf from his enterprise. A solemn choral hymn wishes him 10 000 years of life. Once again the Mandarin reads aloud the imperial decree regarding the Princess; and again the boys’ chorus is heard, a prelude to the appearance of Turandot herself. Her aria ‘In questa reggia’ tells the story of her ancestress Lo-u Ling, who was ravished and murdered by a foreign army, and whose memory she has sworn to avenge on any man foolhardy enough to woo her. A pattern of three chords introduces each of her riddles, to which Calaf gives the correct answers (‘Hope’, ‘Blood’ and ‘Turandot’). The music of, entrusted to full chorus and orchestra, now celebrates Calaf’s victory. Turandot begs Altoum to release her from her vow, but he refuses. It is Calaf who offers her a way of escape. If by the following dawn she can discover his name, he will consent to be beheaded. Everyone hails Altoum, who hopes to be able to welcome Calaf as his son-in-law.
ACT 3.i
The palace gardens, at night Distant heralds repeat the Princess’s command that none shall sleep on pain of death until the Prince’s name be revealed. In his romanza ‘Nessun dorma’, whose principal strain testifies to Puccini’s undiminished lyrical gifts, Calaf echoes their words, resolving that his secret shall never be disclosed. The three masks emerge from the shrubbery and offer Calaf various bribes – young half-naked girls, jewels, promises of renown – but he rejects them all. The crowd that has meantime gathered menace him with their daggers, when suddenly the imperial guards appear dragging in Timur and Liù. The Princess is summoned. She orders the interrogation of Timur, but it is Liù who steps forward, claiming that she alone knows the Prince’s name. Turandot has her bound and Ping tries to make her talk. In words of Puccini’s own devising Liù tells the mystified Princess that love has given her the power to resist (‘Tu che di gel sei cinta’). Her mournful melody continues throughout the painful scene that follows with an insistence that recalls the roll-call of the prostitutes in Manon Lescaut. The Executioner arrives; he and his men torture Liù. At the end of her strength she snatches a dagger from one of the guards and stabs herself. Timur, being blind, has to be told of her death; he joins the lugubrious procession that bears her body away. At this point Alfano’s reconstruction takes over, beginning with a duet (‘Principessa di morte’) between Calaf and Turandot, in which the Princess, at first haughty and unyielding, succumbs when Calaf embraces her. Humiliated, she begs him to leave, taking his secret with him. But he now feels sufficiently confident to tell her that he is Calaf, son of Timur. At once she recovers her pride, realizing that she still holds his life in her hands. A female chorus punctuated by brass flourishes leads into the final scene.
ACT 3.ii
The palace courtyard Once again the Emperor, his courtiers and the people have assembled. Advancing with Calaf, Turandot declares that at last she knows his name – it is ‘Love’. Chorus and orchestra unite in a triumphant reprise of.
Despite its unfinished state Turandot is rightly regarded as the summit of Puccini’s achievement, bearing witness to a capacity for self-renewal unsurpassed by that of still greater composers. The style remains true to the composer’s 19th-century roots, but it is toughened and amplified by the assimilation of uncompromisingly modern elements, including bitonality and an adventurous use of whole-tone, pentatonic and modal harmony. The resulting synthesis commands a new range of expression (the pentatonic scale, no longer a mere orientalism as in Madama Butterfly, conveys the full depth of Liù’s pathos in ‘Signore, ascolta’). The music is organized in massive blocks, each motivically based – a system which shows to particular advantage in Act 1, arguably the most perfectly constructed act in Puccini’s output; while the scoring shows a rare imagination in the handling of large forces (the writing for xylophone alone immediately attracts the attention). These attributes, combined with Puccini’s unfailing ability to communicate directly with an audience, have established Turandot as a classic of 20th-century opera. |
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