Other performances this year include the title role in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur at the Teatro Communale di Bologna and in Oviedo, Spain, Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Staatsoper in Hamburg, and the title role in Massenet’s Thais at Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris. Thanks to the sacrifice of the slave girl, Liù – who was in love with Caláf, but suffers torture, and ultimately death, rather than reveal his name – Turandot weakens, and Caláf ultimately wins her hand.Įrmonela Jaho sings Liù which she has recently sung in a concert performance at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Distraught at the thought of having to marry Caláf, Princess Turandot willingly accepts his challenge of guessing his name before dawn, instructing her subjects not to sleep until his name has been discovered – hence the introduction of the most popular aria in the opera, Nessun dorma (none shall sleep).
She sets her suitors the task of answering three riddles – which, until the arrival of Prince Caláf – none of them has successfully done, resulting in their execution. Set in Peking, this somewhat dark opera tells of the beautiful, but icy, Princess Turandot who is determined never to be possessed by a man. Reportedly, Toscanini turned to the audience and said, ‘Here the composer died’.” Turandot was premiered at Teatro alla Scala in Milan on April 25 of that year, but – according to PBS – “The opening night performance omitted the Alfano finale, with Toscanini putting down his baton where Puccini had abandoned the score when he died. The last duet and finale were written by Italian composer and pianist, Franco Alfano in 1926. Work on the score for Turandot went slowly – it was five years before Puccini had written most of it – then, tragically, he died in 1924, before he could complete it, and without being able to enjoy the success of one of his most popular and most often performed works.
Poster for premiere of ‘Turandot’ April 25th, 1926īy Leopoldo Metlicovitz (1868 – 1944) – courtesy Wikimedia Commons
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