Turandot (Puccini)

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Work data
Title: Turandot
Poster from 1926

Poster from 1926

Shape: Opera in three acts
Original language: Italian
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto : Giuseppe Adami , Renato Simoni
Literary source: Turandot by Carlo Gozzi
Premiere: April 25, 1926
Place of premiere: Milan , Scala
Playing time: approx. 2 ½ hours
Place and time of the action: Beijing , China , fairytale time
people
  • Turandot, Chinese princess ( soprano )
  • Altoum, Emperor of China ( tenor )
  • Timur, dethroned Tatar king ( bass )
  • Kalaf, his son, prince (tenor)
  • Liù, female slave (soprano)
  • Ping, Chancellor ( baritone )
  • Pang, Marshal (tenor)
  • Pong, chef (tenor)
  • A mandarin (baritone)
  • Prince of Persia (tenor)
  • Executioner (silent role)
  • Guards, hangman's assistants, boys, priests, mandarins, the eight wise men, chambermaids, servants, soldiers, the crowd, etc. ( choir )
Turandot directed by Roberto De Simone , Teatro Comunale Bologna , January 2012
Performance of the opera in Luna Park, Buenos Aires, 2006

Turandot is the last opera by Giacomo Puccini . The libretto written Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni after the eponymous play (1762) by Carlo Gozzi . The opera was only completed after Puccini's death by Franco Alfano based on Puccini's sketches and notes. The premiere took place almost a year and a half after Puccini's death on April 25, 1926 at La Scala in Milan with Rosa Raisa as Turandot, the conductor was Arturo Toscanini .

action

Turandot ( Persian توران دخت, Turandocht , German: girl from Turan ) is the princess in a story from the oriental collection Thousand and One Days , which makes every suitor behead who cannot solve her riddle. Another, much older source of the material is the work The Seven Beauties (there it is the Russian princess) by the Persian poet Nezami (cf. the Persian Turandot material ).

first act

In front of the walls of the imperial city

A mandarin announces to the people: “Princess Turandot will marry the first princely suitor to solve her three riddles. If he does not solve this, he will be beheaded. ”Another suitor, the Prince of Persia, has failed and is now being executed. The people are excited and eagerly await the new spectacle.

There is also Timur, a fugitive Tartar king , with the slave Liù. Timur falls, Liù yells for help. A young stranger helps them, and it turns out that this is Kalaf, the son of the fugitive. When the prince of Persia is brought to the scaffold at the moonrise (Perche tarda la luna) , the mood of the people turns to pity at the sight of the attractive prince. The princess asks for mercy, but she remains tough. The princess appears and Kalaf, who wants to curse her, immediately falls in love with her. Despite the warning Liùs, his father and the prince's death sentence before his eyes, Kalaf wants to hit the gong to be the next courtier.

Ping, Pang and Pong, the emperor's ministers , have also appeared at the people and are trying to dissuade Kalaf from his plan. Liù now tells Kalaf how she and his father had fared while they were fleeing, and reveals to Kalaf that she loves him (Signore ascolta) . Kalaf asks Liù, whatever happens, that she should always take care of his father.

Despite all efforts to prevent Kalaf from doing his thing, he rushes towards the gong and hits it three times.

Second act

First image: pavilion

Ministers Ping, Pang and Pong talk about the history of China from its origins to Turandot. They secretly complain about the cruelty of Princess Turandot and dream of a carefree life on their rural estates, but realize that they will not be able to leave the court. From outside they hear the growing screams of the people who are already looking forward to the new execution. The noise of the people brings the three ministers back to reality. The hour of trial is at hand.

Second picture: Large square in front of the imperial palace

The emperor sits on his throne . He tries again to dissuade Kalaf from his plan to marry the princess. But Kalaf insists. A Mandarin reads out the rules and laws again.

The princess Turandot appears. She tells the people about her ancestress Lo-uling (who was stolen by the Tatars) (In questa reggia) and that she wants to take the life of anyone who dares to marry her in revenge. Then she gives Kalaf the three riddles, which he is able to solve to her surprise.

Horrified, she asks the emperor not to hand her over to the stranger. The emperor orders that he must keep his word. However, Kalaf offers Turandot a way out. He, the unknown prince, wants to release her from the oath and choose suicide if she finds out his name by sunrise; she can then rule over his life. If not, she'll be his wife. The emperor agrees.

Libretto, 1926

Third act

First image: garden of the palace

The princess has ordered that no one is allowed to sleep that night until the name of the stranger has been found out ( Nessun dorma ) . The three ministers find Kalaf and offer him everything possible to dissuade him from Turandot; Wealth, beautiful women and fame. But Kalaf is confident of victory. Timur and Liù, who had been seen talking to Kalaf the day before, are dragged over by soldiers.

Turandot joins them. She hopes to find out the name now. Liù claims that only she knows the stranger's name, but even under threat of torture she does not reveal it. When Turandot asks where this resilience comes from, she replies that it is love that the princess will also get to know (Tu che di gel sei cinta) . Since Liù fears that she will reveal Kalaf's name under torture, she steals a dagger from a soldier and stabs herself. The people are shaken. Liù's body is carried away, accompanied by the people.

Calaf and Turandot are now alone. Calaf accuses Turandot of her cruelty (Principessa di morte) . He tears the veil off her head and kisses her passionately. Only now does their resistance break. She tells him that from the first moment she feared him, but also loved him. Now Kalaf tells her his name and goes into her hand.

Second picture: outside of the imperial palace

Turandot and Calaf appear before the emperor. Turandot proclaims his name: "Love". To the cheering of the people, both sink into each other's arms and become happy (Diecimila anni) .

Instrumentation

The orchestral line-up for the opera includes the following instruments:

Work history

The mature Puccini was always interested in new subjects and unusual heroines. When it was written, Puccini's opera was at the end of a long series of settings of the Turandot material. Beginning with various stage music for Friedrich Schiller 's theater piece, which was premiered in 1802, first by the composer Franz Seraph Destouches , then in 1809 Carl Maria von Weber and finally Vinzenz Lachner in 1843, operas on this subject emerged from 1809 ( Blumenthal ). With one exception (1867 by Bazzini ), these were exclusively operas in German (1816 Franz Danzi , 1835 Carl Gottlieb Reissiger , 1838 Johann Hoven , 1888 Adolf Jensen , 1888 Theobald Rehbaum , 1917 Ferruccio Busoni : Turandot ).

In March 1920, Puccini met the librettist Giuseppe Adami and the critic and dramaturge Renato Simoni in a restaurant. A conversation developed about the Venetian playwright Carlo Gozzi and his fairy tale play Turandot . The character of the ice-cold Turandot appealed to Puccini from the start, but at the same time posed a problem. The role of the warm, loving slave Liù was added.

It was no problem for Puccini that this fairy tale had already been set to music several times. It is not known whether he was familiar with Ferruccio Busoni's 1917 work. He certainly knew Antonio Bazzini's work Turanda , written in 1867 , because he had studied with Bazzini in Milan. Perhaps Puccini was also tempted to outdo the works of his predecessors.

In the summer of 1920, Simoni gave Puccini the Italian Turandot translation of Friedrich Schiller's freely retold Gozzi work. Originally he wanted to stick to this template relatively precisely; later, however, he invented the figure of Liù as the opponent and the exact opposite of Turandot.

In order to make the Far Eastern world echo in music, Puccini sought advice from his friend Baron Fassini, who was very familiar with Chinese culture. Later he also borrowed a music box from him. Puccini often quotes Chinese melodies from them in the opera.

By January 1921, the libretto of the first act with the appearance of Liù was ready, so that Puccini could begin with the setting and also made good progress. With the second and third acts he found it a little more difficult. Again and again he asked for changes to the text. In November 1922 he finally decided to let Liù die. By March 1924, Puccini had finished composing the opera by Liù's death. The only thing missing was the final duet. It wasn't until September 1st that he received a text that satisfied him. He immediately started drafting and making notes. “A striking, beautiful, unusual melody has to come from here,” he wrote about the final duet , which was to be the climax of the entire opera. But this melody never came about.

His throat had been aching since March 1924. He suffered from cancer of the throat. On November 4th, Puccini was brought by his son Tonio to a clinic in Brussels , where the tumor was treated with radium . On November 28, however, Puccini had a heart attack and died on the morning of November 29, 1924. The premiere of the opera was already scheduled at La Scala in Milan. That is why the conductor Toscanini brought in the composer Franco Alfano to complete the last scene of the opera. Alfano dutifully took on this task.

William Ashbrook, who studied Puccini's notes in detail, commented on Alfano's work: “... he commendably carried out the tiresome assignment. Above all, he carefully followed the hints, cues and phrases that Puccini left behind. ”Toscanini, however, considered Alfano's finale to be too independent and too long, and shortened it by about a third. In fact, Alfano had ignored Puccini's instructions to avoid any “bombast” and composed a mighty, pompous ending. Nor did he compose a symphonic interlude in which Puccini wanted to trace the kiss that finally softened Turandot. In 1978, the musicologist Jürgen Maehder discovered the complete Alfano finale, which has been performed at various opera houses around the world since 1983, for example at the New York City Opera (1983), at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (1985) and at the Bonn Opera House (1985), at the Saarbrücken State Theater (1993), at the Salzburg State Theater (Großes Festspielhaus, 1994) and at the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart (1997).

Meanwhile, there is also another alternative ending by the Italian composer Luciano Berio from 2002. It was precisely because the kiss that changed everything in Alfano's final scene is hardly given any musical form (there are no musical sketches by Puccini for this crucial focal point of the plot) Berio on this task. He also puts a musical question mark at the end, thus questioning the suddenly occurring happy ending. Puccini himself was extremely dissatisfied with the dramaturgy of the ending and until his death found no way to make it suitable musically (which underpins the lack of sketches for the kiss).

Arturo Toscanini stood at the conductor's podium at the premiere, which took place only 1 ½ years after Puccini's death.

This performance is reported: “Because of its earlier successes, and since one does not say anything bad about a dead person, Act 1 was received with tumultuous applause. After the second act, the applause was only polite for the sake of form. During the third act, Toscanini laid down the baton after Liù's death and said: 'This is where the master's work ends. Then he died. ' Whereupon a deep silence floated in the room until a voice called out from the stands: 'Viva Puccini!' and deafening cheers broke out. ”Only from the second performance onwards was the ending performed in the form customary today.

This work by Puccini was long less popular than its predecessor. In the meantime, however, Turandot has asserted himself on the opera stage. This work is always surrounded by the “nimbus of pathos”, as it was only performed after the composer's death. It summarizes his performance and indicates how his further development could have looked.

Well-known arias

Nessun dorma ( vincerò ) (Kalaf) is one of the famous tenor arias. The piece has been interpreted by various artists. Signore, ascolta! (Liù), Tu che di gel sei cinta (Liù) and In questa reggia (Turandot) are the well-known soprano arias.

Excerpt from the aria In questa reggia

Discography (selection)

literature

  • Decca Records, recording and textbook Turandot by Gery Bramell; 1972
  • Culture library; Volume II; Opera and operetta guides
  • Kii-Ming Lo , "Turandot" on the opera stage , Frankfurt / Bern / New York (Peter Lang) 1996, ISBN 3-631-42578-3 .
  • Jürgen Maehder : Turandot (with Sylvano Bussotti ), Pisa (Giardini) 1983.
  • Ders .: Puccini's »Turandot« - Tong hua, xi ju, ge ju , Taipei (Gao Tan Publishing) 1998, 287 pages (in collaboration with Kii-Ming Lo).
  • Ders .: Puccini's "Turandot" - A Fragment, in: Nicholas John (ed.), Turandot, London (John Calder) / New York (Riverrun) 1984, pp. 35-53.
  • Ders .: Studies on the fragmentary character of Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot", in: Analecta Musicologica 22/1985, pp. 297–379; Italian translation:
  • Ders .: Studi sul carattere di frammento della "Turandot" di Giacomo Puccini, in: Quaderni Pucciniani 2/1985, Milano (Istituto di Studi Pucciniani) 1986, pp. 79-163.
  • Ders .: La trasformazione interrotta della principessa. Studi sul contributo di Franco Alfano alla partitura di "Turandot", in: J. Maehder (ed.), Esotismo e colore locale nell'opera di Puccini, Pisa (Giardini) 1985, pp. 143-170.
  • Ders .: "Turandot" studies, Deutsche Oper Berlin , contributions to Musiktheater VI, season 1986/87, pp. 157–187.

Web links

Commons : Turandot  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rolf Fath: Reclam's opera and operetta guide, 37th exp. Ed. (2002), ISBN 978-3-15-010511-5
  2. ↑ Norbert Christen: Turandot. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater. Volume 5: Works. Piccinni - Spontini. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-492-02415-7 , p. 132.
  3. ^ William Ashbrook: Puccini's Turandot: The End of the Great Tradition
  4. ↑ In his work Exotismus in Giacomo Puccini's "Turandot" (Cologne-Rheinkassel 1993), Peter Korfmacher discusses the question of whether Puccini had not failed from the start due to the radical nature of the original subject ( Turandot failed? ) By introducing the character "Liù" .