Turandot is the last opera of Giacomo Puccini, first performed in 1926 at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, after the composer's death. In a legendary China, Princess Turandot sets her suitors three riddles: whoever fails is beheaded. Prince Calaf solves them and offers her a challenge in return: to discover his name before dawn. Out of that sleepless night comes "Nessun dorma", the most celebrated aria in the work.
Act I. In Peking, a mandarin proclaims the law: Princess Turandot will marry the suitor of royal blood who solves three riddles; whoever fails will die. In the crowd, the exiled Prince Calaf finds his father Timur and the slave girl Liù, who loves him in secret. Despite their pleas, and despite the execution of the Prince of Persia, Calaf, dazzled by Turandot, strikes the gong and declares himself a suitor.
Act II. The ministers Ping, Pang and Pong comment wryly on the string of executions. Before the court, Turandot explains her coldness: she is avenging an ancestor wronged by a foreign invader. She poses the three riddles and Calaf solves them one by one. When the princess begs the Emperor not to give her away, Calaf offers her a way out: if she discovers his name before dawn, he will accept death.
Act III. No one sleeps in Peking: Turandot has ordered the stranger's name to be found at any cost. Calaf waits, confident, in "Nessun dorma". The guards drag in Timur and Liù; to protect the secret, Liù declares that she alone knows the name, withstands torture and takes her own life. Calaf kisses Turandot and reveals his name to her. Transformed, she announces before the court that the stranger's name is Love.
Puccini worked on Turandot from 1920, on a libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni after the theatrical fable by Carlo Gozzi. He died in 1924 without completing the final duet, which Franco Alfano finished from his sketches. At the premiere, on 25 April 1926 at La Scala, Arturo Toscanini stopped the performance at the exact point where Puccini's score broke off, in homage to the composer.
The score combines a sumptuous orchestra, massed choruses and authentic Chinese melodies, among them the song Mo Li Hua, associated with the princess. Turandot introduces herself with the aria "In questa reggia"; Liù is at her most affecting in "Signore, ascolta" and "Tu che di gel sei cinta". "Nessun dorma", with its famous final note, became an emblem of tenor singing far beyond the opera house.
Turandot closes the story of Italian grand opera on an almost cinematic scale. The contrast between the icy princess and the tenderness of Liù, and the tension between ritual and feeling, carry the work well beyond its famous aria. Seeing it whole shows where "Nessun dorma" comes from and what is at stake on that night.
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