Turandot

Turandot is the last of the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s 12 operas, and returns to the Oriental subject matter he had first explored in Madama Butterfly two decades earlier. Its plot revolves around a beautiful but cruel Chinese princess, whose potential suitors must answer three secret riddles correctly to claim her hand in marriage—or face death by decapitation. The opera’s best-known number is undoubtedly the heroic tenor aria “Nessun dorma” (“None shall sleep”), which was catapulted into popular culture when Luciano Pavarotti’s recording of it became a theme tune at the 1990 football World Cup in Italy. But Turandot has other powerful moments too. The central character’s searing Act II aria “In questa reggia” (“In this palace”) is one of them, and throughout the opera Puccini’s rich melodies and sumptuous orchestration are strong attractions. Turandot has regularly drawn criticism for its sadistic representation of torture and murder. The ending is also an issue: Puccini died in 1924 before finishing the opera, and though various completions have been made by other composers, none is entirely satisfactory. Audiences have, however, continued to thrill to the exotic sound palette that Turandot offers, and the large-scale visual impact it makes in staged productions.