Turandot ( ; see below) 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.Turandot's Homecoming: Seeking the Authentic Princess of China in a New Contest of Riddles , Master of Music thesis by Ying-Wei Tiffany Sung, Graduate College of Bowling Green State University, August 2010 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 Turāndokht (, ; ), a name frequently given to Turkish 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 (); in Persian, both the kh and t (خ and ت respectively) are 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 a XV Century Turkish collection called Ferec baʿde şidde ("Relief After Hardship"), and some other Middle Eastern folklore.based on a story by the Persian poet Nizami Retrieved 23 November 2016. One of these stories, believed to be inspired by Nizami, features a cold princess named Turandokht.Karl Gustav Vollmoeller, Turandot, Princess of China: A Chinoiserie in Three Acts, 1913, online at manybooks.net. Retrieved 8 July 2011 The original tale in the turkish Ferec baʿde şidde was called "The prince Khalaf, His parents, and their adventures". The tale was also presente in the persian collection called Jāmiʿ al-ḥikāyāt that are prototypes of the Ferec. However, Croix modified many of the original story, renaming it Calaf et Tou-randocte. 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.. Freely translated from Schiller by Sabilla Novello: .
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."Howard Van Hyning, Percussionist and Gong Enthusiast, Dies at 74" by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, 8 November 2010. Accessed 9 November 2010. Baron Edoardo Fassini-Camossi, the former Italian diplomat to China, gave Puccini a music box that played four 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.
Toscanini recommended that Riccardo Zandonai be engaged to finish the opera.Charles Osborne (1981). The Complete Operas of Puccini, p. 250. New York: Da Capo Press. (paperback, 1983). Puccini's son Tonio objected, and eventually Franco Alfano was chosen to flesh out the sketches after Vincenzo Tommasini (who had completed Boito's Nerone after the composer's death) 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 3, the orchestra stopped playing. Toscanini turned to the audience and announced, "" (). The curtain was then lowered. A reporter for La Stampa recorded the words slightly differently: "" (""). 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 3. 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. CityLocationDate of first performanceStarringTurandot/CalafConductorOther informationMilan, ItalyLa Scala25 April 1926Rosa RaisaMiguel Fleta and Franco Lo Giudice (alternating)Arturo Toscanini (premiere, and possibly second and third performances)Ettore Panizza (all performances after Toscanini's departure)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, ItalyTeatro Costanzi29 April 1926Bianca ScacciatiFrancesco MerliEdoardo VitaleBuenos Aires, ArgentinaTurandot performance history", Teatro ColónTeatro Colón23 June 1926Claudia MuzioGiacomo Lauri VolpiGino MarinuzziDresden, GermanyStaatsoper Dresden6 September 1926Loewenberg's Annals of Opera gives the Dresden date as 4 July 1926, but German sources give the correct date of 6 September 1926. The delay was caused by the late arrival of Briiggemann's translation at Ricordi for its inclusion in the Italian-German vocal scores.Anne RoselleRichard TauberFritz BuschPerformed in GermanVenice, ItalyLa Fenice9 September 1926María Llácer-CasaliAntonio BagnariolGaetano BavagnoliVienna, AustriaVienna State Opera14 October 1926Lotte LehmannLeo SlezakFranz SchalkBerlin, GermanyStaatsoper Berlin8 November 1926Mafalda SalvatiniCarl Martin ÖhmanBie, Oscar. "Letter from Berlin". Apollo: A Journal of the Arts, January–June 1927: Vol 5, Apollo Press. London. p. 38Bruno WalterNew York City, United StatesMetropolitan Opera16 November 1926Maria JeritzaGiacomo Lauri VolpiTullio SerafinBrussels, BelgiumLa Monnaie17 December 1926Jane BonaviaVictor VerteneuilCorneille de ThoranPerformed in French.Trieste, ItalyTeatro Verdi22 December 1926Pedro MirassouGennaro PapiNaples, ItalyTeatro di San Carlo17 January 1927Bianca ScacciatiAntonio BagnariolEdoardo VitaleParma, ItalyTeatro Regio12 February 1927Elena BarrigarFranco Lo GiudiceGiuseppe PodestàBern, SwitzerlandBern Theatre13 February 1927Maria NezádalPeter BaustDr. Albert NefTurin, ItalyTeatro Regio17 March 1927Linda Barla RicciGennaro Barra-CaraccioloGino MarinuzziBaltimore, Maryland, USALyric Theatre Baltimore18 April 1927Florence EastonEdward JohnsonTullio SerafinFlorence, ItalyPoliteama Fiorentino23 April 1927Atlanta, Georgia, USAMunicipal Auditorium27 April 1927Florence EastonEdward JohnsonTullio SerafinCleveland, Ohio, USAPublic Auditorium3 May 1927Florence EastonArmand TokatyanTullio SerafinLondon, United KingdomCovent Garden8 June 1927Bianca ScacciatiFrancesco MerliVincenzo BellezzaSan Francisco, United StatesSan Francisco Opera19 September 1927Anne RoselleArmand TokatyanGaetano MerolaBologna, ItalyTeatro Comunale di Bologna29 October 1927Linda Barla-RicciAntonio MelandriGino MarinuzziBudapest, HungaryOperaház14 November 1927 Nándor RékaiBaku, Azerbaijan(then Transcaucasian SFSR, Soviet Union)Baku OperaMarch 1928Alexander KlibsonPerformed in Russian(?).Paris, FranceParis Opera29 March 1928Maryse BeaujonGeorges ThillPhilippe GaubertVerona, ItalyVerona Arena28 July 1928Anne RoselleGeorge ThillAlfredo PadovaniAustraliaHis Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne9 June 1928Giannina Arangi-LombardiFrancesco MerliGaetano BavagnoliKyiv, Ukraine(then Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union)Kyiv OperaSeptember 1928Aleksander OrlovPerformed in UkrainianBarcelona, Spain Gran Teatre del Liceu30 December 1928Iva PacettiAlfredo Padovani Belgrade, SerbiaNational Theatre28 June 1930Lovro von MatačićMoscow, Russia(then Russian SFSR, Soviet Union)Bolshoi Theatre12 December 1931Kseniya DerzhinskayaBoris EvlakhovLev SteinbergPerformed in Russian, translated by Pavel Antokolsky, 39 performances until 1934