A Guide to Puccini's Turandot and Ticket Giveaway

Experiencing opera on a large screen with HD sound is at once immediate and intense; it engages us with lavish effects of sight and sound.  We’ll have two chances this summer to experience Giacomo Puccini’s final masterpiece, Turandot, in large-scale presentations.  Each production offers a different finale, since Puccini had not completed the opera at the time of his death.

First, the Metropolitan Opera offers a repeat HD theater performance of Turandot in select movie theaters in the Washington, D.C. area on August 7, 2024.  This 2016 production of Puccini’s extravagant masterpiece is set to Franco Zeffirelli’s legendary setting – a sight to behold! -- and features acclaimed soprano Nina Stemme in the title role and tenor Marco Berti as Calaf, conducted by Paolo Carignani.  This production features the traditional ending, as composed by Franco Alfano.  As a special treat, WETA Classical is offering an opportunity to win free tickets to this HD presentation. Entry details are below. 

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Second, the annual Opera in the Outfield event at Nationals Park on August 24, 2024 will offer a large-screen presentation of Washington National Opera’s recent production of Turandot.  And it’s a unique version because it includes the world premiere of a new ending commissioned by the WNO.  Soprano Ewa Plonka stars in the title role of the coldhearted princess Turandot and tenor Yonghoon Lee performs the role of her tenacious suitor, Calaf.  Speranza Scappucci conducts. The performance starts at 6:30 pm (ET). Click here for details.

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Here’s a description of the marvelous Turandot, followed by a synopsis of each Act.

Drama is at the heart of Turandot. Based on an ancient poem and set in ancient China, it tells the tale of a young and beautiful, but coldhearted, princess named Turandot.  She is traumatized by violence inflicted on a female ancestor and has developed a resentment toward men.  Turandot subjects all of her suitors to a deadly game of riddles.  She will marry the man who answers correctly, but will sentence to death anyone who fails. Many have tried but none have succeeded. Enter a nameless stranger – a Prince from a distant land – who becomes so besotted with Turandot that he willingly risks his life to play her treacherous game.  But when the clever Prince correctly answers the riddles, Turandot recoils and refuses to honor her pledge to marry.  The Prince offers to release Turandot and go to his death on one condition – that she discover his name by the following sunrise.  Thus begins a battle of wits, threats and death that is ultimately resolved when the Prince voluntarily reveals his name: Calaf.  But by then, Turandot’s cold heart has warmed to the love of this determined Prince.

Puccini infused the score with authentic Asian elements in a blend of East and West that includes authentic Chinese melodies and innovative orchestration --gongs, xylophones and glockenspiels. Many of the passages are haunting and suspenseful.  Choral passages play a significant role in Turandot; the chorus serves as common folk in the kingdom who witness the action, lament Turandot’s cruelty, and express sympathy for the Prince who faces death at Turandot’s decree.  And a mighty chorus bolsters the triumphant ending.  The opera is also the source for one of the most stirring and best-known tenor arias in opera: “Nessun dorma” (No One Sleeps), in which Calaf expresses confidence that he will emerge victorious in a bargain he has struck with Turandot to learn his name.    

Puccini started the score to Turandot in 1920 using a libretto by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.  By 1924, Puccini was still struggling with the opera’s ending, as illness, ultimately diagnosed as throat cancer, incapacitated him.  He sought medical attention in Brussels and, perhaps sensing his dismal fate, told the conductor Arturo Toscanini, “Don’t let my Turandot die.” Puccini died after surgery in Brussels in 1924, never to return to his homeland of Italy or to the score of Turandot.  The finale was left unfinished.

But he left several sketches behind. The Italian opera composer Franco Alfano was selected to craft an ending based on the sketches, perhaps because Alfano’s own orchestral style bore similarities to Puccini’s orchestration.  Alfano’s finale focuses on a pivotal duet between Turandot and Calaf in which Calaf reprimands Turandot for her cruelty and Turandot is eventually won over by Calaf’s love.  Turandot was also impressed by the love that a servant, Liu, shows for Calaf when she killed herself rather than betray Calaf by revealing his name.  Turandot declares that Calaf’s name is “Love” as the chorus joyfully sings, in music echoing “Nessun dorma”, of long-awaited love and peace in the kingdom.  Despite Alfano’s efforts, when the opera premiered at Milan’s La Scala opera house in 1924, the conductor Toscanini chose to honor Puccini by halting the music in the middle of Act III at the spot where Puccini stopped composing. Toscanini then turned to the audience and said, “Here the opera ends, because at this point the maestro died.”

Today, Alfano’s ending is the best-known and most widely-performed finale to Turandot. It is stirring and triumphant, and brings audiences to their feet.  Still, other composers have tried their hand at a different ending.  One was the Italian composer Luciano Berio (1925-2003), who composed a Turandot finale in 2001 with an enigmatic ending:  Turandot and Calaf exit the stage together to understated music, with no definitive articulation of their fates.    

More recently, for Washington National Opera’s production of Turandot at Kennedy Center in 2024, Artistic Director Francesco Zambello sought an alternative finale to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Puccini.  She commissioned two Chinese-American artists -- Grammy Award-winning composer and playwright Christopher Tin and playwright and screenwriter Susan Soon He Stanton -- to devise a finale that removed Chinese stereotypes and empowered Turandot by clearly delineating the reasons for her bitterness toward men.  “I am eager to redress stereotypes that existed in Puccini’s day”, Tin stated. “In this new ending, we hope to create a more three-dimensional Turandot who transformation from selfish sadist to an empathetic leader and lover is not only believable but inspiring, and perhaps even sparks a dialogue about the nature of leadership in today’s society.”

This new WNO ending does, however, incorporate some of Puccini’s original music from earlier in the opera, including “Nessun dorma”, to connect the ending to the whole. “I also don't want to slavishly try to impersonate Puccini, because nobody wants to hear a second-rate Puccini, but maybe somebody might want to hear a first-rate Christopher Tin", he added.

Here is a detailed synopsis of each Act.

ACT I.

In a kingdom in ancient China, a Mandarin announces to the community that Princess Turandot will subject all potential suitors to a game of riddles.  Turandot will marry the man who answers correctly, but anyone who tries and fails will be beheaded.  The Mandarin declares that the Prince of Persia has just failed and will be executed that day.  Calaf, the young Prince of Tartary who is escaping his kingdom after being conquered by Chinese rulers, enters within the crowd.  He recognizes his elderly father, Timur, and Timur’s servant, Liu, in the crowd. Calaf begs them to not speak his name for fear of being killed by Chinese officials. Calaf spots Turandot at the execution of the Prince of Persia and immediately falls in love.  He wishes to marry her and announces his entry into her deadly game, knowing that failure means death.  Three court officers – Ping, Pang and Pong – warn him of the danger, and Timur and Liu also try to dissuade Calaf, but Calaf is determined. He dramatically strikes a gong to signal his entry.  The kingdom does not know Calaf’s name.

ACT II.

Ping, Pang and Pong bemoan the state of affairs in their kingdom, and long to return to the peace and quiet of their homelands. They know that Calaf’s entry into Turandot’s game of riddles will result in either death or marriage.  The kingdom gathers for Calaf’s challenge. Turandot’s father, Emperor Altoum, enters for the contest but expresses his displeasure at his daughter’s deadly ritual and appeals to Calaf to withdraw.  Turandot explains, in a dramatic solo aria, “In questa reggia”, that her bitterness toward men stems from violent acts inflicted on her female ancestor by a foreign prince.

Turandot then presents three riddles to Calaf:

What is born each night and dies each dawn?

What flickers red and warm like a flame, but is not fire?

What is like ice, but burns like fire?

Calaf answers each correctly.  The crowd rejoices at Calaf’s triumph, but Turandot panics because she does not want to fulfill her promise to marry the winner.  She pleads with her father to release her from her oath, but he insists she must honor it.  Seeing her despair, Calaf offers Turandot a deal: If she can guess his name by morning, he will accept his death.  But if she does not learn his name, she must marry him.  Emperor Altoum is impressed with Calaf’s compassion and honor. He expresses a wish that Calaf will prevail in the morning and become his son.

ACT III.

Turandot has issued a decree that all people of the kingdom but learn this stranger’s name by morning, or else face death.  No one in the kingdom sleeps that night in order to discover his name.  At dawn, Calaf sings the famous tenor aria, “Nessun dorma” (No one sleeps), confident that he will win his deal with Turandot.  Turandot demands that Timur and Liu reveal the prince’s name.  To protect Timur from harsh treatment, Liu states that she knows the prince’s name but refuses to disclose it.  Liu secretly loves Calaf.  When Liu is tortured to reveal Calaf’s name, she accuses Turandot of having a shell of ice but may warm to love.  Rather than reveal Calaf’s name, Liu kills herself.  All become subdued and ashamed at this turn of events. Calaf scolds Turandot for her cruelty, calling her the “Princess of Death.”  He kisses her.  Turandot begins to warm; she feels compassion and love for this stranger.  Yet she asks him to leave and take his mystery name with him. But Calaf’s love for Turandot holds fast – he reveals his name to her, understanding that she can now order his death.  Instead, Turandot and Calaf go to her father, the Emperor.  Turandot tells her father that she now knows this stranger’s name:  “It is Love.” The kingdom rejoices. [Note:  In WNO’s revised ending, Calaf convinces Turandot to shed revenge and hatred and turn toward love and forgiveness. Turandot orders the guard to bury Liu near Turandot’s tortured ancestor.]

Enter to win a pair of tickets to Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD Summer Encore presentation of Puccini's Turandot on August 7 at 1PM by sending an email to classical@weta.org with the theater of your choice between Regal Gallery Place, Regal Rockville, or AMC Tyson. Giveaway ends on August 4, 2024 at 11:59PM (Eastern). 

Click here for complete giveaway rules.