Conductor Arturo Toscanini suggested that the score be given to the composer Franco Alfano for completion. He wanted some authentic Chinese touches, so he listened to a friend's Chinese music box, and studied sheets of folk music.īut when Puccini died in November of 1924, the opera was incomplete. Puccini began sketching music for the opera early in 1921. His inspiration was a compilation of traditional Asian stories, and the tale of Turandot became even more famous when Gozzi's version was adapted by the German playwright Friedrich Schiller. The story originated two centuries earlier, in a fiaba, or dramatic fairy tale, by the Italian writer Carlo Gozzi. In telling the colorful story, Puccini created an opera that's simultaneously extravagant, exotic, musically powerful and dramatically "over the top." That is, it's got everything an operatic potboiler could possibly want, and then a little bit more!Ĭomposer Giacomo Puccini died in 1924, leaving Turandot unfinished.īACKGROUND: Turandot was first performed in 1926 at La Scala, in Milan. But winning the heart of Turandot turns out to take more than just three clever answers. The opera tells us about the one fellow who did solve the riddles.
To have any shot at all with Turandot, a suitor first had to answer three vexing riddles - and anyone who failed wound up with his head on a stake, as a warning to all the suitors still standing in line. It tells of a princess so desirable that men came by the hundreds, from all over the world, and queued up to vie for her love.
Turandot is based on an ancient fable, originating in Persia and set in China. Remember Helen of Troy - the beautiful princess with the "face that launched a thousand ships"? Well, in Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, the title character is another legendary princess - whose face chopped off a thousand heads!
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