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PUCCINI’S CREATION OF THE ROLE OF LIÙ IN HIS OPERA TURANDOT: A SOPRANO’S PREPARATION OF THE ROLE

AND A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment o f the Requirements for

The Degree Doctor o f Musical Art in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

By

Sanghee Kim, B.M, M.M.

* * * * *

The Ohio State University 2001

Dissertation Committee;

Professor John Robin Rice, Adviser

Professor Joseph Duchi

Professor Hillary Apfelstadt

•proved

serSchool a isic

UMI N um ber 3022426

UMIUMI Microform 3022426

Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against

unauthorized copying under Title 17, United S tates Code.

Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road

P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346

ABSTRACT

Both historical and theoretical background were used to study Giacomo Puccini

and his operas. Puccini was brought up in a musical family. He began his music training

by playing the organ in the local cathedrals, as was his family's tradition. He studied at

the Milan Conservatory. During his life in Milan, he saw many productions at La Scala,

which inspired his interests in operatic compositions.

It is noteworthy that Puccini was the last composer to follow in the “Great

Tradition” o f Italian opera, Musico-drama, which began in the mid-seventeenth century.

He was referred to as the true successor o f Verdi. Puccini's important contribution was

melding new methods along with the Great Tradition. This became revolutionary in the

Italian opera tradition. His ideas were generated from the “dramatic affect”, which, he

thought, was primary in his opera compositions.

Turandot is marked in Italian operatic history as the last opera, which followed in

this Great Tradition. It was a numbered opera, which followed the tradition, but Puccini

added his own inventions. Puccini began using a more musical conversation in the vocal

hnes, which became a prominent technique in the twentieth century.

Puccini’ s personal life also influenced his compositions. Many o f his emotional

influences came from his relationship with his mother, and later with his wife, Elvira.

u

These influences came to life in his operas when his heroines met their deaths. The death

o f his mother greatly influenced him and he sought comfort from other women, which he

could not get from his wife. Elvira knew of Puccini's indiscretions. A personal nurse to

Puccini, Doria Manfredi, whom Elvira publicly accused o f an affair, killed herself to

prove her innocence. This was a huge scandal. This incident was the motivation for

Puccini to create the character Liu. It was Liu, the first Seconda Donna who became

more important than the Prima Donna Turandot.

U1

Dedicated to my father

IV

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank my advisor. Dr. Robin Rice, for intellectual support,

encouragement, and enthusiasm which made this dissertation possible, and for his

patience in correcting my errors.

I thank Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt, for accepting the committee in a short notice and

advice she gave me to finish this dissertation.

I also wish to thank my firiend, Hjae Lee who helped me to handle various

computer problems.

VITA

January 30, 1970......................................... Bom — Seoul, Korea

1993 B.M. Yonsei University

1994 — 1995..................................................M.M. The Ohio State University

1996 - present..............................................Doctoral Program in The Ohio State University

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Music

Voice Performance

VI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

pageAbstract......................................................................................................................................... ii

Dedication....................................................................................................................................iv

Acknowledgement....................................................................................................................... v

Vita............................................................................................................................................... vi

List of Musical Examples.......................................................................................................... ix

Chapters:

1. Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1

2. Puccini’s Biography.............................................................................................................. 5

2.1 Puccini’s childhood and education...................................................................52.2 Puccini’s Operas............................................................................................... 10

2.2.1 L ev ilh ...........................................................................................................102.2.2 Edgar.............................................................................................................122.2.3 Manon Lescaut............................................................................................ 132.2.4 La Bohème...................................................................................................172.2.5 Tosca.............................................................................................................192.2.6 Madama Butterfly.......................................................................................232.2.7 La fanciulla del W est................................................................................. 272.2.8 LaRondine.................................................................................................. 302.2.9 D Trittico....................................................................................................312.2.10 Turandot.......................................................................................................33

Endnotes................................................................................................................................35

3. Puccini The M an................................................................................................................ 37

3.1 Personality......................................................................................................... 373.2 Puccini ’ s Relationship with Librettists...........................................................433.3 Puccini’s Relationship with Women...............................................................47Endnotes................................................................................................................................53

vii

4. Turandot................................................................................................................................54

4.1 Gozzi’s Turandotte..............................................................................................544.2 Busoni’s Turandot.............................................................................................594.3 Puccini’s Turandot............................................................................................62

4.3.1 The D ram a................................................................................................... 644.3.2 The M usic.................................................................................................... 684.3.3 Composing Process..................................................................................... 704.3.4 Alfano’s Ending...........................................................................................76

Endnotes................................................................................................................................ 79

5. Puccini’s Creation o f the role — Liu...................................................................................81

5.1 Historical Background...................................................................................... 815.2 Liu’s Three Arias............................................................................................... 90

5.2.1 First Act: Liu’s First A ria .......................................................................... 925.2.2 Third Act: Slave Girl and The Princess .................................................985.2.3 Third Act: Cortege o f Liu and Prince o f Persia................................... I l l

5.3 Liu and Prince Calaf........................................................................................1145.4 Liu as a R o le .................................................................................................... 115Endnotes.............................................................................................................................. 118

Selected Bibliography.............................................................................................................. 120

Appendices................................................................................................................................ 126

VIU

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

eageExample 1. Scarpia Them e......................................................................................................20

Example 2. Japanese National Anthem used for marriage ceremony.................................24

Example 3. Japanese Folk song — “Nihou Bashi” to characterzie Cho-Cho-San’s friend.24

Example 4. Japanese Theme to characterize Prince Yamadori........................................... 25

Example 5. Japanese Theme to Characterize Cho-Cho-San’s relatives............................. 25

Example 6. Liu’s First Aria: Signore, ascolta\...................................................................... 94

Example 7. Liu’s second aria in Act m Tanto amore segreto............................................100

Example 8. Liu’s third aria in Act HI Tu che di gel............................................................. 107

Example 9. Tu che di gel and Persia Prince's theme............................................................112

IX

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Unlike any other characters in Puccini's operas, Liù was Puccini's own creation.

She was Puccini's typical heroine. As a singer who sang Liu's two famous arias. Signore,

ascolta! and Tu che di gel, I developed a great interest in her character. Since then, I

have always asked, “Why are Liu's arias “better” than Turandot's? What were the

influences? How was she created?”

Both historical and autobiographical background was used in the research o f Liù.

My interest became stronger throughout the research o f how important Liù was in

Puccini’s operatic output. Currently, Liù's arias represent some of the most important

and fundamental repertoire created for the lyric soprano, which happens to be very

unusual for a minor operatic role. It is noteworthy that Puccini's creation o f Liù was

different from any other seconda donna. Liù was not only a slave-girl, she was used as

an apparatus for the transition o f the entire drama and became a true Puccinian heroine.

As my research continued, I noticed that Puccini's personal life was very

influential in affecting his work, especially after his opera, Edgar in 1899. His creative

1

genius flourished only after his mother's death, and the unusual beginning o f his married

life. His personal character and how his life began to be shadowed in his art was also one

o f his greatest influences.

Puccini was different from any other contemporaries o f his time. As soon as he

received his first contract with the publisher, Giulio Ricordi, he ceased having any

financial difficulties, which was not the case for many other composers. Mozart, for one,

is famous for suffering greatly just to earn enough money from his compositions.

Perhaps that is why Puccini did not have as great an opus in totality as most other

composers. While others had to compose as much as they could to survive, it took about

three to five years for Puccini to finish each major work. Puccini was also a man who

suffered emotionally while composing. He was never satisfied with his work. He was

famous for revising scores many times, and yet, in the end, he was still not content with

his work.

Another part of his character that influenced his compositions was that he was

personally quite vulnerable to criticism. His driving passion was composing, and he

could not understand why people who would criticize him and his music. He was easily

hurt by the personal accusations that were hurled at him and could not stand the critical

musical comments. He wanted to be loved by everyone, which was very difficult for

him, since he tended to live outside the realm o f what was considered at that time to be

socially acceptable. Due to his talent, people were jealous o f him. That would explain

why he did not have any “musician” fiiends other than the people with whom he

collaborated while composing his operas.

The reason for his slow-paced and time-consuming compositional manner was

due to his character mentioned above. For instance, when he was under attack by a critic,

he would withdraw into his shell, and enjoy a more leisure life. He was obsessed with

hunting and conversations with his artist fiiends. This was the only time he could get out

into the real world and forget about his work. Even Ricordi had to periodically advise

him to concentrate on his work.

Puccini's marriage was also another source of great pain in his life. His wife,

Elvira, was a negative influence in his life and in his compositions. Puccini was not a

person who was given to rage or outwardly show his anger. He was a soft-spoken, peace-

seeking gentleman who would keep his anger to himself and not let it out. Opera was the

only apparatus in which he could vent his inner anger. Besides his relationship with his

mother, Puccini had very few healthy and happy relationships with women. His marriage

to Elvira started a great public scandal; he had numerous affairs, which brought him to

believe that he had to suffer in the end. Therefore, he had his mind that "the one who

loves will suffer for love." This is why he chose librettos where most of the heroines die;

it was his outlet for revenge and anger. However, he changed this scenario in the opera,

Turandot.

Doria Manfiredi's suicide caused the primary influence in Puccini creating the role

Liù. This happened when Puccini was in his sixties and near the end of his life. He

finally took pity on his wife Elvira and he knew that he was the only person who could

take care o f her. He had the innate sense that Turandot would be his final opera and he

did not want a tragic ending. In his mind, Puccini visualized that the princess Turandot,

was his wife, Elvira, and Liù was Doria Manfiredi. However, in this opera he did not kill

3

the prima donna, Turandot. He had the Seconda donna (Liù) die. Thus, she became the

typical Puccinian heroine.

Puccini knew in any circumstance, Elvira would not personally change her ways.

But in this opera he envisioned her change by transforming the icy princess (Turandot)

into a person who realizes the great love in her heart. For Turandot's transition, Puccini

needed some catalyst. Liù was the person he had to sacrifice this time. Through her

torture and death, Turandot could be transformed. However, Puccini died before

completing the opera. He completed everything up to Liu's death - leaving Liù the real

heroine.

Even though the role o f Liù is a seconda donna, the repertoire has become a basic

staple o f the operatic repertoire for a lyric soprano. This paper's purpose, hopefully, is to

impart a fuller knowledge of the historical, dramatic and vocal aspects of the role, which

would be a useful source in the preparation of the role.

CHAPTER 2

PUCCINI’S BIOGRAPHY

2.1 Puccini’s childhood and education

Giacomo Puccini, the fifth child bom to his parents, was horn in Lucca on

December 22, 1858, “though Puccini himself insisted on the 23 o f December.”’ His

baptized full name was Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini.

The place where Puccini was bom, Lucca, “lies in the broad plain while Celle is perched

high on a sharp peak over the narrow valley o f the Roggio.” The Puccini family lived in

Celle since at least the sixteenth century and sometime in the early eighteenth century

they moved down to Lucca. Lucca is still a famous place for visitors today, for it is “the

living testimony to its past splendor and glory lies in its magnificent ancient buildings: its

palazzi - some forty o f them - and its churches. There is the lovely church of San

Michele where young Giacomo was a choirboy. There is the austere Basilica San

Frediano founded in the sixth century; and most impressive o f all is the Cathedral o f San

Martini, where four Puccinis occupied the post o f organist and choir-master throughout

their lives.” ^

Giacomo was a little over five when his father, Michele Puccini, died. Giacomo

hardly remembered his father, but his first experience with music was with his father.

“He used to play a game with him on a organ. Michele would place small coins on the

keyboard, and the child, trying to grasp them, could not help pressing the keys down and

thus producing sounds. Despite such blandishments, Puccini never became a celebrated

organist; he even developed an aversion to the instrument of his ancestors. Yet the

tradition o f his son succeeding the father was firmly established in the Puccini family.”

However, Lucca took for granted this tradition and assigned the young Giacomo as the

organist and choirmaster after Michele’s death. Since Giacomo was too young to be a

choirmaster, the position was taken care by his uncle Fortunato Magi until Giacomo was

able to serve.

That a six-year-old child should thus be assured o f his father’s post must he unique in musical history; it certainly betokened great optimism on die part o f the Lucchese authorities. Yet from the little we know o f Puccini’s early years — and that little is almost completely undocumented — he gave at first small ground for such expectations. By all accounts, the boy was conspicuously lazy; his school reports were bad; work was little to his liking and most of the day he could be found with his young playmates either on the ancient walls of Lucca or in the fields near the banks o f the Serchio indulging his passion for hird-catching. As for composing, far from showing any precocity, there was little indeed to suggest more than the possession of average gifts. ^

Puccini’s formal musical education started at the Istituto Musicale Pacini by his

uncle Fortunato Magi, who taught Giacomo singing and organ keyboard. However, it

was Carlo Angeloni, who showed him how to study orchestral scores, especially Verdi’s.

“Angeloni proved far more successful conscientiously preparing him for the duties he

was expected to perform as his father’s successor.” ® At the age o f ten he started as a

6

choirboy at Saint Martino and Saint Michele, then he started playing organ at the services

when he became fourteen. He expanded his organ playing to other cities (near Lucca,

including Mutigliano, Celle and Pascaglia), which helped his mother with living

expenses. Due to this pressure over earning money to help the household, Puccini started

to smoke at an early age. Smoking, he believed, relaxed his nerves and he soon became a

chain-smoker, which led him to his fatal disease, cancer.

Puccini began composing organ music between the ages sixteen and seventeen.

He began by improvising his work in organ music from Tuscan folksongs and operas

such as Rigoletto, II Trovaotre, and La traviata which were shown to him by his teacher,

Angeloni.

In 1876, Puccini attended a performance o f Aida at Pisa. This made such an

impact on him that he decided to break with the family tradition and follow his instinct

for operatic composition. He later said that this Pisa performance opened a musical

window to him. Lucca, however, was not the place to acquire the operatic craft, and it

became Puccini’s most ardent wish to go to Milan, which with its Teatro alia Scala and

Conservatory was the mecca for all aspiring composers. ^

“He had his first success as a composer with the motet Plaudite populi on 1877

and with a Credo, both o f which were performed on 12 July 1878 in honor o f San

Paolino, the patron saint o f Lucca. The Credo was later inserted into his Messa a

quattro.” * Puccini’s gift as a composer was soon recognized and in 1880 autumn after

finishing the Istituto Musicale Pacini, he was granted the “Queen Margherita”

scholarship for the further study in Conservatory in Milan. Along with the scholarship,

Puccini received financial support firom his uncle, Niclolao Ceru.

Puccini started the Milan Conservatory in the year o f 1880 and studied there for

three years. The New Grove; Masters o f Italian Opera indicates that Puccini’s

experiences in those three years had much in common with those o f the poor young

artists so vividly depicted in his opera. La bohème. He learned composition, and the

other courses o f aesthetics, drama and Literature. The courses he was taking must have

been deadly, since the note Puccini had written said, “Ciao, professore . . . io dormo.

Ghimè!!!! Ahi!!! O dio!!! Ajuto per caritàü! Basta!!! È Troppo!!! Muojo!!! Va unpo

meglio!” (“Good-by professor. . . I’m sleeping. Alas! Ouch! O God! Help, for goodness

sake! Enough! It’s too much! I’m dying! It is going a little better!”) But, his three years

became the foundation o f his future success. He started his studies with the composer

and a violinist Antonio Bazzini (this lasted only for a month), and then with PonchielH

who was the well known opera composer at that time. “Puccini was eager above all to

learn the art o f the coup de théâtre, the mastery o f which he would later display in many

o f his works.” He learned history and philosophy o f music from Amintore Gah and the

fundamental principles o f Wagnerian aesthetics.

“Finally, by attending performances of most o f all the major operas o f Bizet,

Gounod and Thomas at La Scala and other theaters, he gained direct experience o f the

French style, which was to become one o f the most distinctive features o f his art.”

O f his instructors at the Conservatory, Ponchielh exerted the greatest influence on Puccini. Although Ponchielh was a busy man — occupied with his own compositions, a post in Bergamo, and editing for the music publisher Giovannina Lucca, in addition to his duties at the Milan Conservatory — he was genuinely interested in his young pupil and helped Puccini very much at the outset o f his career. For instance, convinced of the promise o f Puccini’s graduation composition, Capriccio sinfonico, he did much to ensure its favorable reception. Ponchielh’s friendly concern accoimts for the fact that Puccini’s composition was

8

warmly reviewed by a leading Milanese critic, scarcely the usual expectation for the graduation exercise. From Puccini’s point o f view, Ponchielh had the important recommendation of being a respected and successful composer o f operas. Puccini’s studies with Ponchielh left their mark on the younger man’s music.

During his student days, Puccini composed a Preludio sinfonico in A major in

1882. "’’Preludio sinfonico is very interesting. In its intense concentration, and in the

ethereal sonority o f the opening, there are noticeable echoes o f the prelude to Lohengrin”

One year later he composed Capriccio sinfonico as a part o f his diploma exercise. This

piece is a composition for full orchestra and it was similar to a symphonic poem. This

was performed on 14 July 1883 by the conservatory orchestra, which was conducted by

Franco Faccio, the leading Italian conductor o f the time. For the first time this

performance proved Puccini’s talent for “melodic invention and colorful orchestration.” ^

Puccini’s work was a success and earned the approval from the critic Filippo Filippi,

“one o f the foremost champions in Italy o f German Romantic symphonic and lyric

music.”

During his student years in Milan, Puccini met Alfredo Catalani, who was

becoming well known at that time, ttirough him “he came into contact with the Milanese

group o f Bohemian artists known as the Scapigliati, which comprised leading

intellectuals, including Boito, Faccio, and Marco Praga.” Another friendship Puccini

made during his time was with Pietro Mascagni who was also a student in Milan

Conservatory. “Their student days in Milan, A Bohemian existence with little money and

plenty o f high spirits, created a bond that kept Puccini on friendlier terms with Mascagni

than he enjoyed with most other composers o f his generation.”

The best o f Puccini’s compositions, apart from his operas, is undoubtedly the Messa a quattro also composed during these years. The liturgical passages o f the Mass have always appealed to the imagination of opera composers, who see in them an undeniably dramatic quality, as revealed here in the martial opening of the Gloria and in the initial theme of the Credo. Touches o f the sacred style are also present. The opening o f the Kyrie displays elegant choral counterpoint in four parts. Composed in strict form. The work is full o f striking passages, from the intensity dramatic Credo to the simple elegance o f the Agnus Dei. The work shows Puccini drawing on a great and vital family tradition, while exploring new possibilities. The techniques he demonstrates here mark the beginning o f a new style that was to ply an essential role in his creation o f theatrical effect.

2.2 Puccini’s Operas

2.2.1 Levilh

Puccini entered the Sonzogno Competition with his first opera Le villi, in April

1883. Ferdinando Fontana, who was introduced to Puccini by Ponchielh, wrote the

hbretto. The original title was Le Willis, and later Puccini changed the title into Le villi.

'"Puccini composed this opera by writing the vocal and the harmony first then finishing

by orchestrating it. This practice became Puccini’s composing style. During this time,

Puccini’s mother’s health became worse due to their impoverished lifestyle. Puccini also

had strong emotional ties with liis mother, Albina, which is very typical in the Italian

family culture. Along with this struggle, Puccini had another enticement, Elvira

Gemingnani, who was the wife of wholesale grocer and mother o f two children, who then

became his lover. Since Puccini had to contribute his family with his earnings, he was

giving music lessons in singing and piano. Elvira was also one o f his music students and

10

this took much o f his time and energy. Puccini barely made the deadline and his score

was barely readable.” The judges, chaired by Ponchielh, rejected the opera. The

reason was that the score was illegible and, therefore. Le villi was not even considered.

Later, Puccini’s talent as a gifted composer was recognized by Giulio Ricordi,

who himself was an excellent musician and became a father figure, mentor, and a fiiend

to Puccini. Puccini met Ricordi at a party o f a wealthy music lover, Marco Sala, at which

a number o f famous people such as Arrigo Boito were present. During the party, Puccini

sang several songs firom Le villi and these caught the attention o f Ricordi. “If Xe villi had

been successful it would have been published by Sonzogno. But, instead, the opera

ended up in the hands o f his rival (Ricordi).” Le villi was performed at the Teatro del

Verme on May 31, 1884 to enormous critical success. The opera was revised in two acts

upon the advice o f Ricordi’s. Arturo Panizza conducted the first performance o f Le villi.

The cast was Regina Caponetti as Anna, Anoinio D’Andrade as Roberto, and Erminio

Pelz as Gulielmo Wulf. The popularity o f the opera itself ended shortly but Ricordi had

found “Verdi’s Successor” .

Puccini’s symphonic unity in Le villi is achieved by the prominence o f two

orchestral intermezzos and a prelude, in which are interpolated reminiscences and

anticipations o f the vocal parts. They establish a dramatic cohesion using interwoven

melodies, a technique, which, fi-om Manon Lescaut onwards, was to characterize

Puccini’s compositions. The most original music is given to the tenor, notably a splendid

romanza, in which Puccini displayed gifts which he was to develop fully in the next few

years: melodic originality, harmonic delicacy, dramatic intuition and flexibility in the

orchestra.

11

There was a five year gap between Le villi and his next opera, Edgar. This gap

was due to distractions in his personal and professional life. After Puccini’s success o f

Le villi, his mother died on July 17, 1884, in Lucca. This devastated Puccini. Puccini was

her favorite among her children and the bond between them had been extremely close.

For the people who knew Puccini later in his career, he would often speak about his

mother continuously when he was under stress. Additionally, Puccini’s mother had

strong opposition to his affair with Elvira. When his mother died, Elvira left her husband

and her son, Renato (bom in 1883), but took her daughter, Fosca (bom in 1880), to live

with Puccini. They had a son together, Antonio, in 1886. However, Puccini and Elvira

were not able to legally marry until Elvira’s husband’s death in 1904. This caused a very

big scandal at that time and the people fi’om Lucca never forgave them for their sinfiil

acts.

2.2.2 Edgar

After Le villi, Ricordi assigned another opera to Puccini with the same librettist,

Fontana. This started their lifelong working relationship. This new opera was Edgar,

which was originally written in four acts. Edgar was based on Alfi'ed de Musset’s drama

La coupe et les lèvres, which was chosen by Fontana. The reason for this selection was

that the plot resembled the opera Carmen. Edgar was the most unsuitable libretto for

Puccini’s particular dramatic talent, on which he had to work on this opera for four

years.”

12

The first performance of Edgar was at La Scala in April 21, 1899. “Although

Puccini was called out several times both during and after the performance, he realized

that the opera was a failure.” Puccini revised the opera continuously from 1901 to

1905 into three concise acts; Edgar still did not succeed. ‘Tontana insisted on keeping

the allegorical subject but at the same time he wanted to please the Scapigliati, he tried to

create opportunities for theatrical moments in the style o f a grand opera.” The outcome

was that the libretto was omitted with unity in “symbolic contrasts between guilt and

purity, and virtue and vice.”

Nevertheless, from a strictly musical point o f view, many sections in Edgar are worthy of consideration. Chief among these is the first part o f the third act, when the fake fimeral o f Edgar takes place. Puccini treated it with complete sincerity, his imagination responding to the idea o f death, a subject which in the future would inspire some of his best theatrical moments. Unfortunately the dramatic structure forced him to make a number o f concessions to scapigliatura taste. However, the lesson was very useful to him: from then he chose his subjects himself and prescribed the dramatic style o f the libretto before setting it to music. Edgar was the only real failure o f his career.

2.2.3 Manon Lescaut

Having Edgar as a failure, Puccini had to keep his financial problems from

Ricordi, since he had to support Elvira and their two children. Therefore he had to begin

a new project. This time, Puccini refused to work with Fontana and decided to choose

the subject himself. Manon Lescaut was the first opera for which Puccini chose the

subject himself alone. After seeing the Massenet’s world famous opera Manon, Puccini

13

got interested in Abbé Prévost’s novel, “whose narrative, characters, and atmosphere he

felt to be eminently suited to his particular genius.”

Five different Ubrettists created the libretto. At first, it was Leoncavallo, followed

by Marco Praga and Domenico Oliva, and in the end, Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Ulica

with Ricordi. They all started working on the libretto in 1889. Puccini was the one who

was in charge o f the whole procedure. But firom the year o f 1891, Illica took charge and

helped cover up Puccini’s weakness, “without changing others for which he had already

composed music. Illica introduced a few minor characters, made the beginning o f the

third act more lyrical and implied a finale alia marinesca. But above all he solved the

problem of the chorus by changing them into a roll-call o f prostitutes in Act three.

Working out a detailed plan, he enabled Puccini to transform what was to have been a

static pezzo concertato into an ensemble of action.” Due to the many librettists, Manon

Lescaut was published without the librettists’ names. This collaborative dramatic

approach made Puccini’s opera differ greatly firom Massenet’s Manon.

While working on Manon Lescaut in June 1891, Puccini bought a mansion in

Torre del Lago on the Lake Massaciuccoli, where he wrote all the remaining operas

except Turandot. Because of his fame, Torre del Lago is now called ‘Torre del Lago

Puccini’ these days. Even though Puccini would spend most o f his life in Torre del Lago,

his real home was Tuscany, Lucca. He left Lucca shortly after his mother’s death and

refused to return where the “Lucchesi” disapproved of his affair with Elvira. Buying the

mansion in Torre del Lago, Puccini became obsessed with purchasing houses. During his

14

early days, when he was having difficulties with money, he moved frequently seeking for

a silent place to live and compose. Afterwards, when he was financially well off, he

developed a habitual hobby o f constant purchase, renting, or building houses. “Perhaps,

it was a spiritual bulwark against his insecurity.” His son later changed this mansion

into a museum.

The première of Manon Lescaut took place on February 1, 1893, and brought the

largest success o f all the operas Puccini had written up to this time. This critical success

made Puccini famous in other countries. In his London production in 1894, renowned

critic Bernard Shaw said, “Puccini looks to me more like the heir o f Verdi than any o f the

rivals.”

With Manon Lescaut, Puccini’s genius caught fire. After the near-failure o f Edgar, he resolutely tackled the problem of “drama in music” postulated by Wagner, combining the technique of the leitmotif with the Italian concept of the drama in musica, in which melody was the main support. In the first act o f Manon Lescaut Puccini went beyond the limits of the genre, skillfully adapting symphonic structures to the demand o f the action. The thematic material used in the opera sets up a network o f relationships, linking characters to real situations and emotions with the result that the music often plays a dominant part, freeing itself from the requirements o f the narrative to suggest sophisticated symbolic associations. A good example of such flexibility is the name-theme (‘Manon Lescaut mi chiamo’), first heard when Manon’s carriage in Amiens in Act one. Puccini took this theme and varied it like a leitmotif, repeating it at key moments o f the action, almost as i f it contained in essence the heroine’s own future and that o f her lover. The precision with which Puccini linlcs tonality to the articulation o f recurrent themes and melodies further reveals his deliberate dramatic intentions.^"^

Puccini generally delineated from the opening bars o f his operas the atmosphere in which the action was to develop. In Manon Lescaut he sketched the historical local color o f the eighteenth century, particularly its lecherous and hypocritical aspects. The opening theme o f the opera is drawn from his own three minutes for string quartet, and suggests the musical style of the period. In the first part of the second act, the life o f the boudoir is depicted; the gallantry o f the courtiers is

15

contrasted effectively with the combination o f passion and corruptibility that dominates the lover’s duet.

In the opera’s devastating conclusion, which takes place in the desert o f

Louisiana, the composer emphasizes the central theme — love understood as a ‘curse’ and

a passion of despair — by introducing his first example o f ‘music remembered’, as he was

to do in an equally unforgettable way for the deaths o f Miml, Butterfly and Angelica.

Themes already heard follow each other, integrating the past with the present. Such

restriction in thematic invention produces a compact poetic unity to the opera. The music

has no need to describe anything because all that happens is the logical result of what we

have already seen. The end of Manon is the inevitable consequence o f her way of her Life

and is thus a metaphor for love, just as the desperation o f Des Grieux is not his alone but

that o f the entire audience who witness the death.

La Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly were the three operas with which

Puccini and two other librettists, Hhca and Giacosa, collaborated. Their collaboration

was so well-balanced that Ricordi even joked about them as the “Holy Trinity”. “It was

perhaps the best team o f librettists Puccini ever had in his entire career.” Illica would

work on the plot, dramatic flow and creation o f the scenic elements. Giacosa’s emphasis

was on the poetical deUvery o f the libretto, while Puccini excelled in bringing all the

aspects together into one idea.

This process was not without its own creative trouble. At times, all three would

have arguments in the process o f their works, which led Illica and Giacosa to consider

quitting a number o f times. Ricordi usually had to persuade them to return to their work

16

and “it was Puccini who won, because o f his extraordinary sense o f theater. For example

Puccini created, from a mere hint in Prévost’s novel, the unique “Embarkation act” o f

Manon Lescaut, added a manhunt in the final act o f La fanciulla del West and invented

the character if Liu and her suicide in Turandot”

According to Ravenni, the following outline details their collaboration on the dramatic

structure:

1. Outline o f the drama: Illica, Puccini

2. Musical sketches, with indications for verse: Puccini

3. Versification: Giacosa

4. Composition, orchestration: Puccini

5. Revision of drama: Illica, Puccini

6. Revision of verse: Giacosa, Illica, Puccini

7. Revision o f music: Puccini

2.2.4 La Bohème

Puccini was in competition with Leoncavallo for the La Bohème Ubretto. They

both claimed that they, in fact, were the first one to choose the subject. Leoncavallo must

have been right, but it was his version, which was delayed about one more year than

Puccini’s production. Right from the start, Puccini’s version was quickly becoming a

staple in the world’s favorite repertory. La Bohème was based on Henry Murger’s

17

autobiography. Scènes de la vie de Bohème. Murger had written this work in a narrative

style, which was very difficult to fit in the old, traditional style o f libretto. “The verse

and dramatic qualities of libretto required music which would follow the action

naturally.” This issue o f looking for a “new relationship between a close-knit drama and

a traditional lyrical style had been confi-onted by Puccini’s contemporaries.” Puccini

knew that his previous work with Illica and Giacosa, this newer narrative form would not

be a problem. Needless to say he was right.

Verdi had created successful works in this mixed style. La traviata formed an everyday element into the melodramma fi-amework. But it was Falstaff, constmcted on a swift succession o f recitatives and arioso passages which revealed definitively to Puccini the way o f escape firom the restrictions o f “number opera”.

In La Bohème, Puccini’s music reflected many aspects of everyday life.

Simultaneously he created “a higher level o f narrative, conveying metaphorically a world

in which time is fleeting, in which the young are the chief characters.” “An ironic

disenchantment is evident even in the most intensity poetic moments, and love rises fi'om

a necessarily mundane situation, and returns to it.”

To make the each character evoke that o f a poor, struggling artist, Puccini fireely

linked different kinds o f sounds together: “extended lyrical melodies, flexible motivic

cells, tonality as a semantic tool, brilliant and varied orchestral coloring.” The

framework of movement pauses when the roles disclose themselves. For example, when

Mimi first met Rodolfo, Puccini expanded the lyricism, which gives the feeling of

extended time. Additionally, he expertly articulated the rhythmical aspects o f the

narrative sections to be truly conversational in nature.18

The frequent recourse to elements intended to denote and signify everyday life in La Bohème can be set within the general context o f late nineteenth century interest in realism. Such ‘reality’ permeates especially the bright fresco o f the second scene, in which Puccini co-ordinates numerous events, entrusting them to small ensemble groups and soloists, and ensuring appropriate timing and cuts from one scene to another which are almost film-hke in their hghtning rapidity. The surroundings thus play an active part in the drama, rather than being merely local color, as in the operas o f Mascagni or Leoncavallo.

La Bohème was first performed at Turin in Teatro Regio on February 1, 1896,

conducted by Arturo Toscanini. At this première, Cesira Ferrani who was the first

Manon, performed the lead role of Mimi. However, this opera did not achieve its success

at the première, because the critics were expecting a “romantically tragic vein” like the

one in Manon Lescaut.

La Bohème is a mixture of lighthearted and sentimental scenes and its largely conversational style was reminiscent of operetta and, in addition, displayed impressionist features in its harmony and orchestration. The progression of parallel fifths at the opening o f Act Three was particularly castigated. Today the work is considered by some writers to be Puccini’s masterpiece. ^

2.2.5 Tosca

Puccini had already planned for the opera subject o f Tosca to be written by the

playwrite, Victorien Sardou, for the famous actress Sarah Bernhardt, immediately after

the première o f Edgar in 1889. It took Puccini four years to complete Manon, but it

would take him six years to complete Tosca. For several years, Puccini was very hesitant

about this subject, which contains violent scenes and he even questioned whether this

tragedy fit his abilities. ‘Tt was his first excursion into the sphere o f verismo.19

» 2 9

Knowing Puccini’s reluctance about the subject matter, Ricordi first offered the Tosca

libretto to another composer, Franchetti. Soon, Puccini changed his mind and he wrote to

Ricordi, “In this Tosca I see the opera which exactly suits me, one without excessive

proportions, one which is a decorative spectacle, and one which offers opportunities for

an abundance o f music.” Ricordi agreed and he had to negotiate very hard with

Franchetti to get it back for Puccini.

Once given to Puccini, the libretto was prepared by Illica and Giacosa again. Illica

was already working with Franchetti, which gave him the foundation o f the subject for

the opera. However, it was Giacosa who had to be convinced that the subject o f Tosca

would work. Giacosa was not interested in this subject and did not consider it even

operatic, because he thought the play lacked “lyrical or poetic moment”. Despite his

concern, Giacosa gave in to Ricordi and decided to continue to work with Puccini and

filica.

Tosca is distinguished firom the preceding operas in that it strictly follows the Classical unity form. A decision was made to eliminate firom the libretto those parts o f the play, which contradict the unity of action and settings. From this derives the high profile given to three places in which most o f the action evolves: the church of Sant’Andrea della Valle, the Palazzo Femese and the platform of the Castel Sant’Angelo. The intense concentration o f events in the opera also obliged Puccini to adopt an accelerated time scheme and consequently to modify the formal narrative technique based on the recurrence of themes and reminiscences used to identify figures and situations without any particular hierarchy. Instead he devised a close musical pattern to provide an agile commentary to the fi-enzied succession o f events. He made use of the chords associated with Scarpia, and the hexatonic scale related to them as a pivot point for the opera. In addition, he sprinkled his harmonic palette with dissonances, and fi-equently pushed orchestration, dynamics and the voice to their limits, loading them with laceratingly expressive tension.

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Yhafiissimo eoBTioleou

Example 1 : Scarpia Theme

The dynamic development of the drama, however, did not preclude lyrical elements. Love, which for Tosca involves furious jealousy, does not occupy a dominant place as an element itself, but as a relief from the tensions of her difficult and oppressive life, like a breath o f sensual happiness experienced somewhere far from the world, a refuge from the tentacles o f papal Rome. But the Ephemeral and sensual evocation o f a night o f love with the male lead character, Cavaradossi is also one o f the most characteristic moments of the decadent modem art o f Puccini in its lack o f heroism. Because the only genuinely regular character in the opera, Cavaradossi, could not appeal to other religions or to the exaltation of art or to memories o f Rome. Cavaradossi had to prepare to die with desperate awareness. Cavaradossi is conscious o f his inevitable death even when Tosca indicates to him that he is safe. In fact, if we are to accept the logic on which the opera is built, only a believer can have faith in his confessor. The scene, which symbolizes the whole opera, confirms his lack of faith, when Flora flings herself from the ramparts o f the castle, surrendering her body to the city with the cry ‘O Scarpia, avanti a D io!’ Only at this moment, after ftie drama o f politics and bigotry has ended with an impossible challenge, can the return of the desperate melody of Cavaradossi’s aria conclude the opera, a symbol o f sensual love, the only certain and real value.

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Tosca premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in January 14, 1900. This was not a

regular premier, but one with very high intensity. There were rumors o f a bomb scare at

the theater. However it was just that, a scare. Instead, Tosca received great pubUc

success. On the other hand, one critic “attacked it for the sadistic cruelty and brutahty o f

the action, which they thought seriously interfered with the composer’s inborn lyricism.”

Yet they admitted his immense skill in the musical characterization o f the atmosphere

and the dramatis personae and in the ideal adjustment o f the music to the swift changes

o f mood on stage.” “Unlike La Bohème, Tosca did not become an overnight success,

but it took the score nearly a year to establish its wide popularity.” At that time, it was

Puccini’s lyricism, which adapted its powerful strength o f the music and the libretto,

which must be admired.

Tosca is still one o f the operas most vividly present in the collective imagination.

Its vitality is derived above all from Puccini’s technical skill. The composer stuck

faithftilly to his intention to represent a reality, real surroundings and characters, putting

the music to the service o f the drama. Imaginative tone color, melodic inventiveness and

motivic elaboration have their origin in economy and lead on to still bolder achievements

in structure which bring him in line with the developments in European opera of the time.

Combining the late nineteenth century sensibility o f the play by Sardou with modem

modes of statement ardently admired by Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, though no

less passionately deplored by Mahler, Puccini, in the best way possible, ushered in the

twentieth century.

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2.2.6 Madama Butterfly

Puccini was already starting to muse about the subject o f his next opera, several

weeks before the first performance o f Tosca. “For the first time in his career he did not

find what he was looking for almost immediately.” After the Tosca performances,

Puccini returned to Torre del Lago to enjoy his new villa, which was being built to his

own design.

In June of 1990, Puccini went to London for the Tosca première at Covent Garden

on July 12. While in London, Puccini saw David Belasco’s one act play, Madama

Butterfly. This play was taken firom a real story borrowed fi'om the writings o f John

Luther Long. Even though Puccini did not understand a word o f English, he was quite

moved by the drama, the destiny o f the Japanese geisha, and the exotic atmosphere.

These subjects were o f keen interest to him.

The Japanese subject re-awakened his interest in the exotic, a subject which had already been tried in the early twentieth century, but had not really caught on in Italian opera. In order to create the atmosphere, Puccini questioned artists and representatives o f Japanese culture, transcribed melodies firom records sent firom Tokyo and studied collections o f Japanese songs. The exoticism of the opera carries great weight: almost half the first act alone is dedicated to Japanese color, built on authentic themes. Puccini also introduced oriental or quasi-oriental touches into his harmonic language, drawing close to French composers, particularly Debussy. To give a characteristic tone to the tragedy he strengthened the percussion, including a tam-tam, and Japanese bells along with campanelli a tastiera (glockenspiel) and tubular bells.

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Japanese National Anthem dk

P9 0 0 n ca o Om d

L’lla-na-rial O w i i - aa-ha!

Example 2. Japanese National Anthem used for marriage ceremony

Example 3. Japanese Folk song — “Nihou Bashi” to characterzie Cho-Cho-San’s friend

24

Example 4. Japanese Theme to characterize Prince Yamadori

Example 5. Japanese Theme to Characterize Cho-Cho-San’s relatives.

At first, Puccini thought o f the opera as a one-act opera with a prologue. He then

changed his mind and worked it into a two-act opera. The second act was divided into

two sections connected by “Butterfly’s night vigil, which was accompanied by an

orchestral intermezzo.”25

In his choice of Butterfly, Puccini used this as a vehicle, “which marked a kind of

return to the past had important effects on Dramaturgy.” Among all his other works,

Puccini came near to the Wagnerian method o f leitmotif embellishment. Because for the

first time Puccini was faced with a “psychological drama”, ' ruled by a single female

character “who acts as a catalyst on the outer world”. Cio-cio-san, a fifteen-year-old

girl, thought o f marriage as an escape firom the uncertain profession o f a geisha. But she

is deceiving herself, and must restore the social order, which she has agitated by

sacrificing herself. “It is the eternal law of all tragedy, based on the increasingly acute

conflict between the obstinacy of Butterfly’s convictions and the outside world firom

which she has become alienated.” In Puccini’s music, he transformed his themes every

time when the heroine realizes the truth that her belief was gradually defeated by reality.

The macrostructure o f the score is worked out with exact symmetry; an extended fugue appears in the first act, symbolizing American efficiency; another fugue, much shorter, sounds wearily at the beginning of the next act, representing the heroine’s three years o f loneliness. In the same way, a sixth chord, which closes the scene o f the entrance o f Butterfly and her friends, appears several times, notably at the end o f the first act and in the tragic conclusion. It weaves a thread through the entire score, from the love duet, sustained by a refined Bogenform, to the great visionary solo, ‘Un bel di vedremo’, to the final hummed chorus.

Puccini considered Madam Butterfly as his “best and technically most

advanced”, hence, he expected a huge success at the première at La Scala on February

17, 1904. However, the performance was a fiasco, a complete failure in the record: “the

public was whistling, shouting and making remarks about the heroine.” It seems that

his envious competitors who wished to spoil the première directed this pandemonium.

Hurt by this uproar, this opera had only one performance at that time. Puccini had

2 6

revised Madama Butterfly with wise cuts in both music and text into three acts. The

orchestral intermezzo was added in between the second and the third act. This revised

version received a great applause at Brescia in May, the same year. Two more versions

were created for the performances o f London in 1905 and Paris in 1906. In these days,

the last version is in use.

2.2.7 La fanciulla del west

There was another six-year gap between Madam Butterfly and Puccini’s next

opera. La fanciulla del west. Unfortunately, Giacosa had passed away in 1906. Puccini’s

search for another working companion, was not a successfid. So Puccini began working

with Gabriele D’Annunzio, who was an established poet at that time, between the years

1900 and 1913. One would think that this combination should have succeeded to profit

Ricordi. However, D ’Annunzio’s “rhetoric and impressionistic verses” restrained

Puccini’s creativity. The result was one o f rather mediocre quality and short-lived

success.

Another main reason for a less successful outcome was Puccini’s personal

problems. Doria Manfiredi, a servant girl o f Puccini’s, committed suicide in January

1909, after Elvira, who was extremely jealous o f her husband, accused Doria o f having

an affair with Puccini. This incident led to a trial which, based on the “evidence of the

autopsy, established the girl’s innocence and the court found against Elvira.” This caused

the huge scandal in Italy, which provoked “the hypersensitive and publicity associated

27

vulnerable composer”. This caused Puccini to lose his energy and desire to work.

Furthermore, Puccini wanted to get away from the tragedy and begin working on

something more difficult with “more masculine fiber, such as he had tried in Tosca"

Puccini found the subject, Belasco’s The girl o f the Golden West, while he was in

New York for a ‘Puccini Festival’ at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1907. Its “mixture

o f stark realism and sentimental romanticism o f this Wild West melodrama,” was about

the gold diggers o f the California gold rush. This subject attracted Puccini greatly. After

Giacosa’s death, Illica’s work no longer satisfied Puccini. In Fanciulla, Puccini worked

with a totally new group of librettists. Carlo Zangarini and Guelfo Civinini.

Puccini experimented with forms o f statement, which departed from the restrictions o f verisimilitude, continually moving further towards the poetic than had so far been seen in European Theater. The increasing distance between the social class o f his characters and the musical statement o f their states o f mind forced new creative solutions. In fact, late Romantic examples o f sentiment and passion had sunk to plots that were realistic only in name. The development of the description of the setting, so important in La fanciulla del west, corresponds closely to the key point o f the plot - especially the game o f poker and the man hunt - and creates unbearable levels o f tension concentrated in crucial moments. These passages anticipate later experiments, medicated through different cultures and traditions, with the emerging Expressionism. They share common roots which go back to the theater of the fin-de-siècle, which gave renewed importance to the human spirit as a source o f passion and obsession - a tendency which later led composers to choose subjects in which the text was simply a vehicle for inner feeling.^^

Never before La fanciulla del west had Puccini been able to envisage on such a large scale the unusual proportions o f spectacular episodes and the exciting acceleration o f action at key points. His natural impulse to find a new and more advanced balance between the music and the mise en scène was to become fundamental to his art. From this point o f view he found himself in step with cinema, with which he had been making progress for several years. La fanciulla del west does not use the ambience o f the gold rush merely as an exotic background, but shares with the Western’s classical devices o f spectacle, conflict between good and evil and simple morality. On an inter-textual level, moreover,

28

La fanciulla del west contains a number o f allusions to Wagnerian drama, including, in the scene in which Johnson is wounded in act three, a literal quotation o f the chromatic m otif which opens Tristan is heard. This shows that Puccini was moving decisively towards a plurality o f styles: the veneer o f the Western and its realistic corollaries on the one hand, and on the other, the great European theme, not to mention an aura o f fable which crowns the whole work.^*

Since La fanciulla del West was based on an ‘American’ operatic subject, Gatti-

casazza, director of the Metropolitan Opera, immediately arranged for its première in his

opera house, on December 10, 1910. Again, Toscanini conducted with Enrico Caruso as

Johnson and Emmy Destinn as Minnie. With this famous cast, the opera was a success to

the public. However, the reaction from the critics were guarded. “In all technical

respects, notably in its Debussian harmony and Straussian orchestration, the opera is a

masterpiece and was Puccini’s reply to the criticism that he repeats himself in every new

opera. What it lacks is the incandescent lyrical phrase, which was largely intentional as it

seemed to conform to the composer’s change of his melodic style.”

Puccini showed that the way o f renewal did not lie in the choice o f subject but in the development o f musical language. Opera as a spectacle was being replaced in the public’s affections by the cinema. In 1910 one needed only the sound track for an opera to reach its full potential. Before his death Alban Berg would attempt an ideal compromise between the two arts, conceiving an interlude in Lidu as film music. Puccini did not go as far as imagining a collaboration between these media, but the idea of mingling them - and his optimism about the power o f opera was equal to Berg’s - led his to provide in La fanciulla del West one of the most important and vital contributions to such a synthesis.^®

Meanwhile, the growth o f a new generation o f Italian composers, like Pizzetti,

Casella, Malipiero, the native nineteenth-century melodrama and every operatic aspect

during that time were being criticized. This new generation began to compose their own

operas. These new “anti-operatic movement” ® supporters returned to the “spirit and29

character o f the ancient masters o f Italian instrumental music, such as Frescobaldi,

Corelli and Legrenzi. Through this new movement, the main attack was aimed at

Puccini. He was accused o f his “bourgeois mentality, lack o f ideals and pure

commercialism.”^ This direct attack was published in a book by the musicologist,

Fausto Torrefranca in 1912, titled as Giacomo Puccini e Vopera intemazionale.

However, putting himself above the fray, Puccini never responded to his accusations.

2.2.8 La Rondine

After Fanciulla in 1912, just when Puccini thought o f his career as “on track”,

Giulio Ricordi died. Ricordi’s son, Tito took over the firm. Because o f Puccini and Tito’s

misunderstanding, shortly thereafter, Puccini turned to Sonzogno for his help. Puccini

accepted Eibenschiits and Berté’s (directors of Vienna Karltheater ) proposal, to write an

operetta. Puccini was only asked to write eight or ten songs only - with dialogue. He

turned down the first libretto, which was given to him by the Karltheater, but later

accepted La Rondine, a play by the young writer, Giuseppe Adami.

The story o f La Rondine was based on Wilner and Reichert’s story, Magda, a

“courtesan who finds true love with a young man from the country, but decides to leave

him, is interwoven with references to La traviata, to Massenet’s Sapho and even to

Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus." Puccini assigned Adami to write the libretto while

removing all the spoken dialogue, and started with a lyric comedy, “an antidote to the

war which was tearing Europe apart.”

30

The entire plot is suffers with light irony, aimed at well-known people like D’Annunzio, whose pursuit o f grandiose ideas is parodied in the poet Prunier, and Richard Strauss, evoked in a fleeting quotation from Salome. Yet La Rondine has nothing in common with operetta, despite the numerous dance numbers, especially the omnipresent waltz, which Puccini placed in the heart o f act two, and several modem dances, including a fox-trot, a one-step and a tango. His aim was to suggest the frenzied atmosphere and jo ie de vivre, which are essential to the first two acts. At the same time, he was indicating his modernity. Such dances, popular for some time in the US, were becoming fashionable in European art music, especially in France, and offered composers the possibility o f enriching their rhythmic range. The world, in which the characters o f La Rondine move is cynical and detached, made up of people animated by a spirit and practicality, concemed with amusing themselves and following the fashions o f Paris. For this frivolous worldliness, fashionable dance rhythms were indispensable.^*

Even though La Rondine had success at its première at Monte Carlo in March 27,

1917, it was considered the weakest link among all the other Puccini’s operas. However,

it was written with perfect technical skill and the score is charming with its waltz music.

Furthermore, La Rondine is notable for its “brilliant, ironic music, sprinkled with

cynicism.” La Rondine is the only opera that was published by Sonzogno.

2.2.9 II Trittico

When Puccini was still working on La Rondine, he started on his new

composition, 77 tabarro. This opera was based on the French play, La houppelande,

written by Didier Gold. Tabarro was the first o f Puccini’s three one-act operas, which he

named 77 trittico. 77 trittico was named after “the scheme o f the Parisian Grand Guignol -

a horrific episode, a sentimental tragedy and a comedy or farce.” Ravenni refers to this

31

opera set as, “The aesthetic unity of II trittico is an necessary premise to its formal unity

because the structure o f each opera is determined by the need to provide a coherence to

the entire evening. Puccini succeeded in compressing the dramatic material, but faced a

new problem o f drawing together three different genres in one project; the ‘dramatic’, the

‘sentimental’ and the ‘buffo’. He knew how to achieve an organic unity by using suitably

varied tinte. The expressive violence o f II tabarro is startling; the delicate music and the

nature o f the drama in Suor Angelica are moving; and Gianni Schicchi is very amusing,

even if the macabre element tarnishes the laughter.” Adami wrote the libretto o f II

tabarro, and Giovacchino Forzano wrote Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.

It was routine for Puccini to place a significant link between the drama and the

setting, but in 77 trittico, “musical and dramatic interplay and its setting and action

enabled him to create new musical forms which he had had in mind since the begiiming

o f the century.” The unity of Puccini’s concept in II trittico appears in the relationship

between the music and each episode.

In Tabarro, the relationship between the dramatic and the musical development is perfectly proportioned. The first part is dedicated to introducing the characters who inhabit the slums o f Paris. The second focuses on the clandestine love and nostalgia o f the character, Michele; action develops which will lead to a conclusion dominated by homicide with a surprising ending. The novelty o f the music is evident when its structure is considered in relation to the plot, which is clearly articulated in the following scheme: exposition, peripeteia, and catastrophe. To this, correspond three long sections in the score (a broad opening Maestoso, a central Allegretto and a concluding Allegro with a sustained introduction), the themes of wliich seem to subordinate the action to the requirements o f the musical form. This procedure, bringing classical features up to date, brilliantly solves the problem o f compression (necessary in a one-act opera) and also secures for the score a unity never before achieved by Puccini."^^

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Suor Angelica, too has a solid structure, derived from the juxtaposition o f episodes, shot through with themes and reminiscences. The outline is clearly indicated by the composer in the libretto by means o f carefully planned breaks; a sort o f via crucis in seven stations lived through by the heroine. Each o f these sections has a character, which makes it an independent episode, but there is a studied homogeneity in the melodic material which links the first to fourth stations, followed by a noticeable gap which isolates the fifth, in which the atmosphere o f the convent’s routines is traumatically disturbed. This episode creates the premise for the finale, when the dramatic temperature rises until the miracle occurs that concludes the work.'^*

Gianni Schicchi is perhaps the most successful of the three one-act scores, particularly from the technical point o f view. To revive the tradition o f opera buffa, Puccini made rhythm the unifying element o f his music. Before the curtain rises, the lowest instruments o f the orchestra enter loudly with a dominant pedal, while the other instruments soar into the upper registers beginning with a quaver ostinato figure. The two themes generated by this opening impulse continue for about two thirds o f the score, marvelously embodying the unstoppable progress of the plot. Puccini was aiming to revive eighteenth century models, in which arias were as much an integral part o f the dramatic action as were recitatives.'^'

Since most o f the European artists were involved in World War I, Puccini

received an offer from Metropolitan Opera for 77 trittico's première which was in

December 14, 1918. The first European production was given in Rome on January 11,

1919. In both of these performances, Gianni Schicchi received audience applause and

admiration. On the other hand, 77 tabarro’s and Suor Angelica’s receptions were tepid.

In following years, Gianni Schicchi, which was an unusual genre for Puccini, was usually

performed separately without the other two. However, nowadays, 77 tabarro is

recognized in its “painting of a somber atmosphere and its dramatic concentration, and

occasional productions o f the entire three set have proved the theatrical viability of

Puccini’s conception.”

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2.2.10 Turandot

When Puccini turned sixty, he reached a large compositional transition point. He

was seeking a new subject with “a fantastic, fairy-tale atmosphere, but characters o f flesh

and blood.” Puccini finally made his choice in Gozzi’s Turandotte, which was

suggested firom Renato Simoni, who was “an authority on Gozzi and the author of a play

on him.” Later Simoni became a co-worker along with Adami and Puccini. Puccini

felt this five-act play was the most humanistic o f Gozzi’s works. Puccini thought himself

to be shifting towards the higher dramatic level with Turandot. He referred to Turandot

that an: “original and perhaps unique work is in making, and compared with all his

previous music, seemed a farce.” For Puccini, the creative process of composing

Turandot, was the hardest work he had ever done compared to his other operas.

Puccini’s letters to the librettists indicated how much he struggled with the subject and

expressed his urgency o f needing the libretto for his work. It was as if he had a

foreshadowing o f his approaching death. Despite his urgency, Puccini died in 1924

before completing Turandot. Later, Turandot was completed by Franco Alfano. The

première o f this opera was at La Scala on April 25, 1926. Toscanini conducted the

première up to the point where Puccini stopped, that o f the character, Liu’s death. On

April 27, 1926, Turandot was performed again with Alfano’s ending. More information

about this aspect o f Turandot will be dealt in Chapters Four and Five.

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Endnotes (Chapter 2)

1. Gamer, Mosco. Puccini; A Critical Biography. Third Edition. New York: Hohnes & Meier, 1992. p. 16

2. Weaver, William. Puccini Pilgrimage. Opera News 39 (July 1974): p. 103. Camer, Mosco. p. 3-44. Camer, Mosco. p. 175. Camer, Mosco. p. 17-186. Camer, Mosc.o p.187. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Masters o f Italian Opera. New York: W. W. Norton

& Company, 1983. p. 3128. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi: The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians.

London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001. p. 5679. Ashbrook, William The Operas o f Puccini. New York Oxford University Press, 1968.

p.710. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p. 56711. Ashbrook, William, p.812. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Masters o f Italian Opera p.31313. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p. 56714. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p. 56715. Ashbrook, William, p. 7-816. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p. 56717. Ashbrook, Williams. p.lO18. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p. 56719. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p.56720. Camer, Mosco The New Grove: Masters o f Italian Opera. P. 31521. Ashbrook, William p. 2022. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p.56823. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian Opera, p. 31524. Weaver, William p. 1425. Ashbrook, William p. 31626. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p. 568-927. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian Opera p. 31628. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. p. 56929. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian Opera p .31730. Marggraf, Wolfgang. Giacomo Puccini. New York: Heinrichshofen Edition, 1984.

p.8431. Marggraf, Wolfgang p. 8532. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi The New Grove Dictionary, p. 570-7133. Ashbrook, William, p. 9634. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. The New Grove Dictionary, p. 57135. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian Opera p. 31836. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. The New Grove Dictionary, p. 57337. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian Opera p.31938. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. The New Grove Dictionary, p. 57439. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian Opera p. 321

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40. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian Opera p.32341. Ravenni, Gabriella Biagi. The New Grove Dictionary, p. 575-642. Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian C^era p.324

36

CHAPTERS

PUCCINI THE MAN

3.1 Personality

Throughout Puccini’s life, he traveled almost all o f Europe and even America;

more so than most o f the other composers o f his time. However, he was considered “a

shy man of simple taste who much preferred to stay at home.” He always complained

to his friends o f how much he disliked hats and tails and how he missed his home in the

coimtryside, Torre del Lago, the woods, the scenery and the sea. Even though Puccini

was widely famous around the world, he personally disliked attending ceremonies,

dinners and the like. He hated being in the public eye. “An invitation to dinner makes

me sick for a week. I wasn’t bom for the life o f drawing rooms and receptions.” *

When he had to appear at a banquet, and especially when he had to make an after- dinner speech - which he found the greatest difficulty in stammering out, even when he had notes, jotted down with the utmost brevity - his annoyance and despair knew no bounds. He loved to mix with his fiiends and with simple men in an atmosphere of unpretentious jollity, and in such company he could feel quite at his ease. Here, among the imcultured residents o f Torre del Lago and Viareggio, his two beloved retreats, he was the best and most care-free of

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companions, for he had escaped from the “Great Puccini,” the part that he had to play outside in the world. ^

Biographer, Camer shows how Puccini was intimidated by others o f high social

standing: “His instinctive reaction to the slightest obstacles in his private - though not in

his professional - life was that o f the snail which withdraws into its shell at the merest

touch from outside.” His personality was also reflected his compositions. “Puccini

suffered agonies o f indecision o f his operas: his moods fluctuated from optimism to

despair and self pity.” Since his character was far from being eccentric, and he hated

being in the big cities, one could question this seemingly “dual personality” between the

man and his music.

The music he was composing was for the “sophisticated city dweller and nowhere

reflects the closeness to nature that some nineteenth century symphonists and opera

composers — even Verdi on occasion - seem to manifest.” His music could be called

music cultivated for “city slickers”." Puccini’s music contained all the merits o f worldly

sophistication and he was the composer who was aware o f the “theater and theatrical

effect”.'* Even the villeins from Torre del Lago called Puccini “the composer o f harlot

music”. *

Another unusual thing about his personality was even though he liked being a

recluse, he was a very wealthy man. He owned lots of “cars, motor boats, and modem

gadgets he installed in his last home at Viareggio. Still, when he was in the city he

longed to retreat to his beloved countryside surrounding Torre del Lago; and when he

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was forced to stay in Italy, as during the First World War, he suffered claustrophobia

because he could not travel abroad.” ^

Puccini was often difficult to get along with - tactless, temperamental, and lacking

in diplomacy. He even managed to antagonize both the French and the Germans in his

attempt at neutrality during the War! He could be coarse and vulgar in his verses yet

more sensitive than most to criticism. The disastrous reception o f the first performance

o f Madama Butterfly at La Scala in 1904 wounded him deeply. He was too hurt to

respond to the attacks o f the most derogatory o f his contemporary critics, Fausto

Torrefrance. It was he who, in 1912, accused Puccini o f Internationalism. ^

Puccini did not trust anyone but himself, including his wife Elvira who was totally

trustworthy toward him. The only people Puccini trusted were his Publisher Giulio

Ricordi and Sybil Seligman, with ‘Vhom he had had a brief passionate affair and with

whom he subsequently formed his only real female friendship,” and his librettist

Guiseppe Adami. Puccini also expressed himself to Luigi Illica from time to time, “My

life is a sea of sadness in which I am becalmed, I am loved by no one; understand — by

no one; and so many people say how enviable my lot is. I was bom under an unhappy

star! Even you do not understand me . . . ” ^

Sybil Seligman received a letter from Puccini that stated his self-awareness o f his

personality, “As you know, I make the great mistake o f being too sensitive, and I suffer

too when people don’t understand me and misjudge me. Even my fiiends don’t know

what sort of man I am — it’s punishment that has been visited on me since the day o f my

39

birth. It seems to me that you are the person who have come nearest to understanding my

nature — and you are so far away from me!!” W ithin a year she received another letter

from Puccini, “ Fm so tired of this hie; . . . and m y nerves are worn to shreds! How I

long for a Uttle calm! Believe me, our life is not to be envied — the texture of our nerves,

or at any rate of mine, can no longer stand up to this drudgery, these anxieties and

fatigue.” *

Due to his character, there was no doubt that Puccini needed to be away from

these situations. He required the proper place for his compositional work: “peace,

seclusion, a chance to get out doors for fishing and hunting, and the opportunity to play

cards and chat with neighborhood rustics who were completely unacquainted with the

world o f culture and music.” Sybil’s son, Vincent Seligman, explained Puccini’s

situation: “In his manner o f Uving he maintained a corresponding standard of simplicity.

He had no taste for luxury or display; and despite his ever-increasing wealth he continued

to live as simply as before, practically his only real extravagance arising from his passion

for motoring.”

Hunting was another obsession for Puccini. When he was not composing, he

loved spending time hunting and interacting with painters. Torre del Lago, the location

“full o f water, sky, and aquatic plants, was discovered at a certain point by a group of

painters from Livorno (later Leghorn) who settled in proximity to the lake. These

painters became fiiends o f Puccini; his companions for hunting and parties. This period

at Torre del Lago, the time he spent with the painters and hunting, was the happiest of

Puccini’s life.” * ' The relationship with these painters was the only time Puccini could

get away from the music-related stress. Puccini recalled his days in Torre del Lago

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“having discussions with the Bohemian painters, Ferruccio Pagni, Angiolo Tommasi,

Plinio Nomellini, Lorenzo Viani, Ludovico Tommasi, and Francesco Fanelli, as joyous

times. Among these painters, Pagni was the dearest and most intimate o f Puccini’s

friends.” Their (Puccini and Pagni) friendship lasted until Puccini’s death. These

painters not only painted Puccini’s portrait but also influenced him in creating characters

and scenes for his operas. Puccini was also interested in their paintings and he tried hard

to help his fiiends sell their paintings.

When Puccini was working on his opera. La Bohème, his painter fiiends found a

cabin which was for sale. At that time Puccini was advising them to “acquire the

property and found a club.” After their discussion, they bought the property and

named the cabin the: “La Bohème Club”. “However, little by little, the club broke up and

the cabin was demolished.”

It looked as i f Puccini was enjoying his leisure time in Torre del Lago. However,

he was a workaholic. He had composed the operas from La Bohème to II Trittico there.

He began searching for new places, “villas and lodgings in the mountains”, to continue

his work composing operas. He hoped that new surroundings would renew his creative

spirit. Most of the locations he found were far from civilized life.

According to author Nick Rossi, there were three reasons why Puccini had chosen

these environments. First, it was isolated, thus giving him the silence and freedom he

needed in which to compose. Second, it was a seldom frequented location so that rents

were cheap, and later the price would be low when he decided to build his own home.

Third, the swampy lake and surrounding pine forest were excellent for hunting. Since

hunting was Puccini’s other passion, Ricordi had to advise him for delaying the schedule.

41

“A little hunting for ducks is all right for recreation, but afterwards I suggest that you also

hunt notes.” ^

His fiiends in drinking or playing always accompanied Puccini. His fiiends gave

Puccini what he needed, “peace, quiet, deference, respect.” Mosco Camer indicates

more o f Puccini’s character. “When Puccini was composing in the fi-ont room o f his villa

in Torre del Lago, his fiiends would visit him and play cards, on the table located

opposite o f piano. Evening and night were his chief working hours, but strangely

enough, he liked the presence of people in his study, provided that the company behaved

as though he were non-existent. W oe to him who had the temerity to whistle some

motive or tune the composer had been trying out on the piano; Puccini was good natured

and not easily roused, but this would send him into filming rage.”

Puccini insisted on wearing a hat while composing, which is another odd

“compositional habit”. “In spite o f the fact that peasants sat at play around the card table

while he composed, and in spite o f the fact that he hated city life and the formalities of

society, his music does not reflect this rustic attitude.” He did not like

“sophistication”.

He loathes . . . the refinement, the nervous excitement o f urban civilization, it induces in him an intolerable feeling o f malaise and even nausea; yet his whole art is unthinkable away firom the “decadence” of modem life in the big cities, of which it is indeed a highly characteristic product. In Puccini’s music we seek in vain for that feeling sturdy rusticity which we encounter in many o f Verdi’s works. No breath of that invigorating, briny air, which he inhaled “with wide- open lungs,” blow through it — the sprit o f the country, in whose simplicities

42

Puccini’s fretted soul would find its real happiness, is almost wholly absent form the world o f his art.

Even though Puccini loved Torre del Lago, there was a pattern o f his

compositional style and timing. He would have most o f his basic work on an opera done

in Torre del Lago, then change his location to stimulate himself and get new ideas for his

opera.

3.2 Puccini’s Relationship with Librettists

Puccini was perhaps the composer who endured the most firustration with

librettists; perhaps more than any other composer. This was due to his searching for new

and exciting opera subjects. Puccini seemed more difficult and cautious about the

subjects he was looking for. Unlike Mozart, to whom librettists submitted their librettos,

Puccini was a composer who would seek the subject by himself and commission the

libretto. He would then write the music with constant revisions for the different

productions then drop them and rewrite them again and again. “On occasion, he was

perverse enough to commission another subject, on a whim, before obtaining Ricordi’s

permission to drop the work already commissioned. Even when already composing an

opera, he would seek many new subjects, never completely satisfied with any one.”

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Puccini’s earliest works. Le villi and Edgar, based on de Musset’s verse-play La Coupe et les Lèvres, were written to librettos by Ferdinando Fontana. Although all was not smooth even in their early relationship, it was the more-assertive Puccini o f Manon Lescaut — based on Prévost’s novel and first performed at Turin in 1893 — whose troubled dealing with librettists gained notoriety. First Leoncavallo was assigned the libretto; after Puccini’s dissatisfaction with him, Ricordi kept Leoncavallo on only in the capacity o f general advisor. Next, Marco Praga took over, in collaboration with Domenico Oliva, first Praga, then Oliva — who refused to be Puccini’s “galley slave” — resigned. Giuseppe Giacosa then suggested Illica, but when Puccini could not work with Illica alone, Giacosa was called in to save the day. Added to these five, there was the constant surveillance and counsel o f Ricordi — himself a composer o f one opera. La secchia rapita, to a text by Renato Simoni — who was one o f the librettists for Turandot. Puccini respected Ricordi’s advice more than that of anyone, calling him “m y best poet, mender o f other men’s faults.” And after all o f this trouble, Turandot, Puccini’s first real masterwork has been praised for its melodic invention and fireshness and criticized for defects o f characterization.

“Ricordi was Puccini’s most faithful friend and perhaps saw in his protégé the

hope of realizing his own aspirations for a successful operatic career.” However, he

became tired o f Puccini’s moody personality over constant subject changes, not getting

along with the librettists and his “weakness for women”. Ricordi continued giving

advice to Puccini to get along with his librettists, Giacosa and Illica, the librettists o f La

Bohème, Tosca and Madama Butterfly, of whom, Ricordi refereed as the ‘Trinity’.

In a relatively rare mood o f sarcasm, Ricordi warned Puccini, “ . . . Take care: if you renounce Illica you will not be able to use any o f his ideas for La Conchita and that means - da capo. As to your idea o f having the tragedy by Wilde translated, bravo! . . . However, unless you have already made an agreement with somebody for the translation (an agreement in writing), you will need a translator as your first collaborator. Further - what rights do the heirs o f Wilde hold? That brings up collaborator No. 2! Then you will need one or very likely several librettists - collaborators Nos. 3, 4, and 5. So it goes on and on! All right - kick our that bloodsucker o f a publisher, who is swimming in his millions . . . ”

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However, in the year o f 1913, Illica quit his job to work with Puccini, “after

having resolved so many difficulties in a relationship which he had deteriorated since

Giacosa’s death in 1906.” After these two librettists, Puccini worked with Guelfo

Civini and Carlo Zangarini in La Fanciulla del West, and Adami in La Rondine and

partnership with Simoni for Turandot. Puccini had fired Ferdinando Martini who was the

librettist o f II Tabarro for his impatient temper and hired Giovacchino Forzano to

complete the other two works from II trittico, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. Unlike

the other librettists Puccini had worked with, Forzano had a relatively conflict-free with

Puccini due to his fast working speed.

Despite several attempts at collaboration, including a completed libretto on the subject o f the Children’s Crusade, Puccini never set anything by Gabriele D ’Amiunzio — this must have been the most fiustrating o f relationship among all the librettists with whom Puccini toyed but never used. At one point, Puccini considered D ’Annunzio “too intoxicating a writer,” an especially ironic comment when coming from so intoxicating a composer. Then there was the range of subjects, which Puccini rejected, from Biblical or historical subjects to tales from The Thousand and One Nights and subjects based on Shakespeare, Verga, Tolstoy, Blackmore, Irving, Dickens, Dumas Père, Dostoyevsky, Goldoni, Gorky, Balzac, Hugo and Hauptmarm. Occasionally Puccini was refused permission to set a subject, as in the case o f Alphonse Daudet’s Tartarin de Tarascon, rights o f which had already been granted to an obscure French composer. In the case o f Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande, the playwright replied: “Alas, how willingly would I have given my poem to the composer o f La Bohème had I not already given it to Debussy.” This was unlike the Hungarian playwright Molnar, who preferred his Liliom to be remembered as a play by Molnar, rather than as an opera by Puccini!

Ricordi always emphasized the issue of performing rights, which became very

important to Puccini. For example, in February 1911, Puccini had proclaimed how tired

he was in “old carcasses”, earlier operas like Madama Butterfly and La Bohème. He

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was looking for a “loftier, more musical, and more original subject”. “True to his

contradictory nature, however, he regressed to the subject o f a suffering heroine and

considered I due zoccoletti (The Two Little Wooden Shoes), by Ouida.” From this

incident, Puccini became very upset with Giulio Ricordi’s son, Tito. Tito was more

impatient with Puccini’s character and moods than was his father. When Puccini

attempted to achieve the copyright for the Ouida hbretto, he had to compete with

Mascagni, who had already made the petition o f finding the libretto first. Moreover,

Puccini had to attend an auction for this libretto, without knowing that Ricordi had

already achieved a copyright for it. In the end, in true Puccini fashion, Puccini became

sickened by the whole process and eventually got bored by the subject. Eventually, he

rejected it.

Puccini was never intimidated by other composers o f his time. When the rivalry

was going on for Manon Lescaut with Massenet, Puccini claimed, “ Massenet feels it as a

freshman, with the power and the minutes. I shall feel it as an Italian, with desperate

passion.” Nor was he afi-aid of competing with Leoncavallo for La Bohème or

Franchetti for Tosca. Puccini had no worries about this kind o f competition. In Puccini’s

words, “I have nothing to be afi-aid of - by now I have become accustomed to doubles;

the two Manons, the two Bohèmes, the four Little wooden s h o e s . “There was one

subject, however, which was sacred to Puccini — that o f Bizet’s Carmen in 1875. Puccini

dropped La Conchita, based on La Femme et le Pantin o f Pierre Louys, and on which

Illica had been working; he also gave up work on the Spanish comedy Anima Allegra,

based on a play by the brothers Quintero, on which Adami had been working.” The

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reason for dropping the Spanish subject was the resemblance of the plot from Carmen,

and also La Conchita had a similar plot and ending.

3.3 Puccini’s Relationships with Women

Puccini’s “Love/Hate” relationship was not only with librettists, but also with

women. His Love/Hate relationships with women were both “on and off stage”. Seven

out o f twelve operas are titled after women’s names. This suggests how obsessed Puccini

was with women. For example, when Puccini was instructing D ’Annunzio for II trittico,

he said, “You can introduce as many characters as you like and out also three or four

women on the stage. A woman’s voice is so beautiful in a small group; have children,

flowers, grief and love.”

When Puccini was searching for some external to stimulation, he would become

very passive in his search. He never selected a subject with “conviction and

assertiveness”. “The only logic to finding his next subject derived from the hunt for a

new girl, rather than from any aesthetic theory or cerebral consideration. The composer’s

subjects were women, and he either had one or was ‘in between’ and looking. His

search, so tied to eroticism, was filled with psychological conflict and therefore preceded

anything but smoothly. Puccini involved everyone in his effort — publisher, fiiends,

mistresses, colleagues. The process assumed global proportions.”

The blurred line between Puccini’s private life and his creative life is partly a

reflection o f the times in which he lived. Rossini was a classical composer — like his idol,

47

Mozart — who practiced music as a profession rather than to express an emotional need.

Verdi was a transitional figure between the classic and romantic eras, one whose

emotion-charged music was separate firom his taciturn private life. Puccini, however,

was the “complete romantic” ": his life was his art. By the time Puccini lived, Italy had

been united and the causes o f freedom and unity replaced by stability and prosperity. The

composer was concerned not with politics but with internal, psychological themes. His

highly personalized art makes Puccini a very modem man.

Puccini’s search for his love interest started as soon as his mother died. Since he

was brought up in a culture by a totally devoted mother who gave “an almost entirely

feminine environment, he never achieved independence or self-sufficiency.”

Throughout Puccini’s life as a person and as a composer, he agonized over and for

women, “who had lived largely for and vicariously through him.” Through his

encounters with women, he developed the theme of his operas that “for those who lived

for love will die for love.” This thought o f his was so fixed in his mind that he used

this theme for most o f his operas. This also became the reason why Puccini so scared of

death and aging. He even “contemplated an operation for rejuvenation, probably from

the same Viennese doctor who performed such an operation on Freud, who suffered from

cancer.” Puccini found his hermitage through these numerous casual affairs to protect

his “pain o f separation and loss of his mother”.

He had relationships with lower class, married and un-married and most o f the

heroines from his operas. His heroines were “flawed and idolized through love, which

withstands suffering.” '* His two different sides of feelings for women were due to his

feelings toward his wife, Elvira, with whom he had eloped from his hometown, Lucca.

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fil Mosco Camer’s Puccini: “A Critical Biography”, the author showed how Puccini

created the characters for his operas. For example, Turandot represented his wife and, as

mentioned in Chapter Two, the character Liu from Turandot, a nun from Suor Angelica

and Butterfly from Madama Butterfly, were all created from the girl, Doria Manfredi,

who committed suicide due to Elvira’s public and bitter accusations. Scandals like this

had a deep psychological impact on Puccini, which in turn influenced his creative process

for his operas.

If Puccini’s married life had been a happy one, he might not have had so many

wild and sordid affairs. Unlike Puccini’s mother, Elvira was not a heart-warming person.

She blamed Puccini for her suffering due to their eloping in Lucca. From this scandal,

they began their married life very poor because Puccini’s uncle, Cerù, who was very

upset from their scandal, ceased funding Puccini. Since Puccini and Elvira started their

life together suffering, they believed that both deserved “special privileges”. She

became very demanding and jealous o f all of Puccini’s relationships — women, men — any

kind. But the reason why they could not be apart from each other was that when they

separated themselves after their quarrels, within several days later they began missing

each other. “Puccini’s relationship with Elvira was similar to his librettists. Puccini

could never leave his wife. Psychiatrists recognize such behavior to be ‘hostile

dependency,’ an example o f which is the adolescent girl who takes her mother along

when buying a dress and then screams about her bad taste.”

When Puccini was fifty-seven, he finally sent a letter to Elvira to calm her

jealousy. “All artists cultivate these little gardens in order to delude themselves into

thinking that they are not finished and old and tom by sacred.” He added that his

49

family was to him, “serious and sacred.” “Everyone has within himself a measure o f

rebellion” ^ and warned Elvira not to reproach him, or his soul would become “desirous

o f other and different sensations.” The most important sentence from this letter, “The

wife of an artist has a mission different from that o f wives o f ordinary men.” This

letter showed how miserably Puccini’s and Elvira’s married life was.

“There were some incidents from Puccini’s student days in Milan which resemble

the atmosphere o f Mùrger’s novel on which La Bohème was based. Puccini and his

friends would run up bills at the Osteria Aida; and once he pawned his coat in order to

pay for an evening out with a ballet dancer from La Scala.” But the details in his

operas did not result from his personal experiences, “which created the ambiance in his

work.” Puccini researched the details. When Puccini was working on the final scene

from La Bohème “he went to Sicily to research Sicilian lore for an abortive project o f an

opera on a Sicilian subject, and while working on La fanciulla del west, he spent most of

his time in New York to achieve details. He studied “Old Chinese music” and read lots

o f books for Turandot and also worked hard researching for “Japanese background”

while he was working on Madama Butterfly.

Puccini stopped his fiiendship with Sybil Seligman when Ricordi died in 1912.

She had been Puccini’s mistress, the wife o f a banker, who later became his best finend,

and through her he made “lots o f connections, taught him social graces, advised him on

purchases, assisted him in negotiations with Covent Garden, and aid his selection o f new

subjects and librettos. Sybil also commissioned the translation o f La fanciulla del West.

She was also the one who listened to Puccini’s troubles, personal and professional. She

gave much more help to Puccini than Elvira, throughout his career. They shared about

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700 letters to each other in detailed correspondence. She gave him the sympathetic

understanding, which Puccini needed. In later years, it was Sybil who was concerned

about his health and told Puccini’s son, Tonio to take care o f him. Sybil was the only

woman, other than his mother, with whom he had long lasting relationship.”

Another fear Puccini had was o f being judged. “This was one o f the terrors that

completion o f his compositions held for him. A careful and conscientious workman, he

found the gap between imagination and realization hard to bear. The composing struggle

rarely ended in euphoria at having expressed him self hilly. Frequently melancholic, self-

disparaging and dissatisfied with his own efforts, he looked to the public and to

newspaper critics for approval and was very sensitive about how they received him.”

In his own evaluation of his works, Puccini was often wrong, usually thinking that his latest composition was the best as in the case of La Fanciulla del West. He was usually so unsure about a subject that he would want the play to be a success first, before he would consider setting the libretto to music. Yet, although he antagonized so many of his librettists, he always knew what he wanted. He had a marvelous instinct for what would work in the theater. “Even if a subject is not brand new (and what is really new in this world?) 1 can succeed in making it appear original through new scenic means . . . Yet he was aware, too, o f his own limitations: “1 have the great weakness o f being able to compose only when my puppet executioners move on the stage. If 1 could be a pure symphonic composer, 1 should then cheat time and my public.”

Puccini was a “well-groomed, well-dressed, vain man who, in middle age dyed

his hair and looked more like a banker than a musician.” Different firom his conservative

looks “this rough Tuscan swore, enjoyed coarse humor and practical jokes and was not

religious. He neither was impressed by celebrities nor sought their company. Puccini’s

charm and personal magnetism as much as his fame and money made willing slaves of

51

otherwise successful colleagues, for example the librettists Giacosa and Adami.

Nevertheless, his relationships were stormy with both sexes, including his wife, his

collaborators, and his friend, the composer Mascagni. To the publisher Ricordi, he was

like a son. Puccini could be described as a bourgeois, hedonistic materialist, fond of

hunting, food, cars, boats and sex. These indulgences, however, were efforts to ease his

loneliness and get himself back to what he really cared about: composing operas.”

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Endnotes (Chapter 3)

1. Rossi, Nick. At Home with Puccini. Opera Quarterly 10, no.4 (1994): p.722. Specht, Richard. Giacomo Puccini: The Man, His Life, His Work. London: J. M. Dent

and Sons Ltd., 1933. p. 163. Camer, Mosco. Puccini: A Critical Biography. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1992.

p.l674. Jones, Gaynor. Puccini Beyond the Façade: A Life of Love-Hate Relationship. Opera Canada 20, no.4 (Winter 1979): p.85. Jones, Gaynor. p.96. Seligman, Vincent. Puccini among Friends. New York: Macmillan Company, 1938.

P.777. Seligman, Vincent. P. 1188. Rossi, Nick. At Home with Puccini. P.739. Seligman, Vincent. P.310. Puccini, Simonetta. “Puccini and The Painters.” Opera Ouarterlv 2, no. 3 (Autumn

1984): P.511. Puccini, Simonetta. P.5-612. Puccini, Simonetta. p.lO13. Puccini, Simonetta. p. 1114. Galli, Nori Andreini. Puccini e la sua terra. Lucca: Maria Pacini Fazzi Editore, 197415. Camer, Mosco. p. 6916. Rossi, Nick, p.7717. Camer, Mosco. p. 9818. Jones, Gaynor. p.919. Jones, Gaynor. p. 1020. Appelton, William. “ The Stop and Go of Talent: Puccini.” Opera News 38 (Dec. 29,

1973 - Jan. 5, 1974): p.12-1421. Appelton, William.p.l222. Appelton, William.p.l623. Jones, Gaynor. p.4824. Appelton, William, p. 15-1625. Appelton, William.p.l2, 16

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CHAPTER 4

TURANDOT

The subject o f Turandot differs from the other operas Puccini composed, “on account

o f its subject an uncommon blend of tragedy with grotesque comedy and the fantastications

o f a fairy-tale.” * This opera was based on the combination of Puccini’s imagination and

Gozzi’s Turandotte.

4.1 Gozzi’s Turandotte

“Gozzi’s Turandotte, a tragi-comedy in five acts, was the fourth in a series o f ten so-

called fiabe drammatiche or dramatic fables, written by the Venetian playwright between

1761 and 1765 and initially occasioned by a heated literary dispute between him and his rival

Goldoni. The bone o f contention was the commedia dell ’arte, adored by Gozzi and despised

by Goldoni.” ^

Count Carlo Gozzi (1720 — 1896) was a “scion o f an impoverished family o f

Venetian nobles”. Commedia delTarte was the genre Gozzi was pursuing and this genre was

54

recognized as “the most vital statement o f the comic spirit in Italian drama and, in particular,

regarded the Venetian commedia as the Uving link with the period of glory and splendor

which his native city had enjoyed in the past.” However, during the m id eighteenth

century, the new style, “more reaUstic and more natural treatment of comedy,” started

throughout France and Italy. This new current took over Commedia dell’arte for two

hundred years. Carlo Goldoni (1707 - 1793), who was a lawyer and “member of the

Venetian middle class,” was the spearhead o f this new movement. “He saw in the time-

honored Comedy o f Masks no more than an artificial and moribund art form which indeed it

had become by the time the quarrel with Gozzi started.” ^

He attacked it on several counts: the monotony and poverty of its stereotyped subjects, the admixture o f trivial intrigues and crude farce in the plot, its rigid and inhuman characters and the inanity o f the dialogue, which was improvised almost in its entirety and in which the actor sought to shine in brilliant impromptus, to the complete neglect o f any literary polish and graces. Goldoni’s aim was to create genuine comedy, a comedy with characters drawn from real life, human beings with natural emotions and behaving in a natural way, instead of the caricature and horseplay indulged in by the stock figures o f the commedia. ^

Getting away from his realism, Goldoni was searching “to substitute literary drama

for Low-class entertainment.” His plays represented coup de grâce, the old comic genre,

which “made dramatic history by fashioning real, credible people and everyday situation.”

This movement was revived through him, although for short period of time, “by the blood

transfusion given it by Gozzi.” In the 1750s, Gozzi started to criticize Goldoni’s plays -

gondoliers, washerwomen and fisherfolk - with his sarcastic wit by “polemical pamphlets and

highly satirical poems.” To reprise Goldoni, Gozzi’s reply was “any novelty, even

Truffaldino and a dancing bear.” This comment was enough to get the public’s attention.

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"Gozzi took this bourgeois temerity, Goldoni’s comment, as a mortal insult.” After

criticizing Goldoni, Gozzi had to come up with something; “I shall stage a fairy-tale, one o f

those stories with which grandfathers and wet-nurses entertain the children on a winter’s

evening by the fire side, and the Venetians will applaud me more than Goldoni.” He was

searching for “its extreme antithesis, he seized upon the fantastic characters, exotic locales

and ancient times o f fairy-tale subject. Upon commedia delVarte, which might be called free

though highly routined, he built bizarre fantasies with a basis o f vulgar familarity.” ^

Gozzi chose the subject from an oriental tale. He thought there should be more

entertainment for people to enjoy, such as “spectacular stage effects — speaking monsters,

rocks and trees and tempests with thunder and lightening.” He thought of his main characters

as o f royal blood, for “endowed with great moral fortitude and valor, getting involved in a

series o f fantastic adventures and love intrigues from which they always emerge triumphant

at the close o f the play. Yet Gozzi’s most striking and wholly novel feature was the

incongruous presence in this oriental setting o f the stock figures from the Venetian Masks —

an idea that may have been suggested to him by the prolonged sojourn in China of his

celebrated compatriot Marco Polo in the thirteenth century.” These Masks are improvised in

Venetian dialects. Gozzi provided these impromptus to make the Masks more cynical

“allusions to persons, customs and institutions in contemporary characters.” After having an

unexpected success from the previous play, L ’Amore delle tre melarance (The Love for the

Three Oranges), Turandotte was constructed more dramatically. “While in his initial essay

almost the entire dialogue was improvised, in the later fables it was written out for the

serious characters and even the part o f the Masks was so fully epitomized that there was no

difficulty in turning it into direct speech.” ^

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In spite o f its success, this style did not last long. “By the eighteenth century they

were eclipsed by Goldoni’s plays and the Italian romantics scorned them for being mere

‘farce’, devoid o f any human and literary interest.” Furthermore, Gozzi’s “fantastic and

supernatural” theme became not suitable for Italian public who were realists and skeptics by

temperament and evinced their aversion towards his play.” ^

However, the German romantic school appreciated Gozzi. His “fantastic and

supernatural” theme attracted the German romantics. They translated his play around 1777.

Goethe, Schiller, Schlegel, Tieck and E. T. A. HofBnan were his admirers and declared

Gozzi as ‘Tather o f Romanticism”. Turandotte especially caught their interest and in 1790

Goethe and Schiller planned to show this play in the German National Theater at Weimar. In

1802, Schiller translated Turandotte and in 1804, he produced Turandotte in a German

adaptation. It was this production that Puccini saw while searching for his new libretto.

Gozzi’s influence on the German stage is best seen in those absurdly fantastic and spectacular scenes which began to find their way into the Viennese Stegreifkomodie, a local pendant to the Italian comedy of Masks — low-class farces with a largely improvised dialogue. A Gozzian echo is clearly heard in Die Zauberflote, as witness the fantastic plot in an oriental setting, the spectacular stage effects, and the two comic characters, Papageno and Monostatos — Viennese cousins o f Tmffaldino and the moor of the Italian Masks. Gozzi has even colored the vernacular comedies o f the Austrian playwrights Raimund and Nestroy. ^

Gozzi’s plays played a very important part in the German romantic opera movement,

which became a large material source for operatic subjects. Above all Gozzi’s play

Turandotte was a favorite subject o f the Germans. His plays always attracted the composers

due to his “song and dance element with exotic stories and locales.” When composers used

Gozzi’s plays, they tended to stress the comic and fantastic elements. “Turandotte was set at

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least six times, with Puccini’s and Busoni’s operas as the outstanding examples. In addition,

the contemporary Austrian composer Gottfried von Einem based a ballet on it; o f the five

musicians who wrote incidental music for the play, Weber was the first and Ernst Toch, so

far, the last. There are altogether some two dozen musical works associated with Gozzi’s

plays.” ®

fri France, Madame de Staël and prosper Mérimée were among the Gozzi welcoming committee, and his Memoirs were translated by no less a literary figure than Paul de Musset, brother o f Alfred. A taste for fairy tales had taken hold in France during the very Revolution that Gozzi abhorred. Back home in Italy, where one found less sympathy with the romantics, less dependence on German intellectual influences, there was always a tendency to appraise Gozzi realistically and face his shortcomings. Goldoni’s humanism is more to the Italian taste. ’’

Turandotte contained five acts, which included many scenes and characters. Unlike

Puccini’s straightforward plot, Gozzi’s play was far from it. The subject was taken from a

collection o f Persian tales, similar to The Arabian Nights. Shakespeare and Molière had

already dealt with this subject. In Gozzi’s play he veiled “the ferocious sex-war” into

“charmingly innocent, naïve and essentially comic fairy-tale”. He tried to overshadow the

tragedy subject by having a more comical character. Masks, in the spotlight, which differed

from Puccini’s. Gozzi’s Commedia delTarte characters were named Arlecchino, Truffaldino

and Brighella. These were transformed into Ping, Pang and Pong in Puccini’s Turandot. But

Puccini finally used Gozzi’s “nostalgia and cynicism o f trio’s moum” in his libretto.

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4.2 Busoni’s Turandot

The characters and the Voice Assignments:

Kalaf TenorBarak BaritoneTurandot SopranoSamarkand SopranoAltoum BassTruffaldino TenorPantalone BassTartaglia BassAdelma Soprano

Setting Gozzi’s play Turandotte which was in fashion in Italy, was “a protest against

precisely this type of everyday drama”. In 1809, Carl Maria von Weber composed some

incidental music and an overture to Schiller’s translation. Weber called this as “Chinese”

overture, because, “it was based on so-called “Chinese air” that Jean-Jacques Rousseau had

incorporated into his Dictionaire de la Musique in 1786.” ° Although, Antonio Bazzini, who

was Puccini’s teacher in Milan Conservatory, had an unsuccessful production in La Scala in

1867, the popularity of the play continued to reign through the turn of the century. Ferruccio

Busoni (1866-1924) was a “brilliant piano virtuoso and one of the most intellectual

composers o f his time. Although he played all o f them, he despised most o f the Romantic

Movement in music - Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, as well as Verdi except for his Falstaff

and Wagner. In his music he rebelled against these influences.”

“hi 1904 Busoni composed a suite based on Gozzi’s T u r a n d o t t e He always

thought that “Schiller and to a lesser extent Weber had destroyed an Italian masterpiece by

imposing upon it a German Frame.”'° His idea was to return to Italy what was rightfully59

hers. Since Busoni was half-Italian and half-Austrian, he vacillated between the two

cultures. But he always felt that he was at heart an Italian, upholding the “classical” '®

element o f that country against the pomposity and rhetoric o f the German approach. In

October 1911 his suite was adapted for yet another German version o f Turandot, that o f Karl

Volhnoller, which Max Reinhardt produced in Berlin. Puccini saw this performance, but at

that time the idea did not strike him as a possibility for an opera.” '®

During the First World War, Busoni composed his one-act opera Arlecchino when he

was living in Zurich. When this one-act opera was completed, he set his mind to turn his

Turandot suite into an opera. In 1905 he composed Turandot into a two act-opera in a

shorter version of Gozzi’s play so that he could have his both operas {Arlecchino and

Turandot) performed together. Busoni’s goal was to have the commedia dell’arte tradition

revived. Like Arlecchino, Turandot was a number opera with spoken dialogue. Without

these elements, this opera would be difficult to identify as a comic opera just by seeing

Masks. “They form and exotic and amusing double bill, which was well received at the

Première.” ' '

Much of the melodic material in Busoni’s score is taken firom the Geschichte der Musik by Ambros. In an effort to illustrate the earliest developments in non- European music, the historian cities allegedly Chinese, Arabic, Byzantine, India, and Nubian themes. The notation and sometimes harmonization o f his music often implies a superficial similarity to Western music. Ambros’s synthetic cultural link supported Busoni’s own theories of melody, as expounded in the Entwurf einer neuen Àsthetik der Tonkunst: ‘The myriad strains that once shall sound have existed since the begiiuiing, ready, afloat in the ether’. Nor Busoni stop at Ambros, for in his Turandot music he also quotes Greensleeves in a delicate arrangement for two flutes and two harps. "

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Unlike Puccini, Busoni tried to adhere closely to the plot o f Gozzi’s Turandotte.

Busoni wrote his own hbretto and it was far from the Chinese legend. Busoni frequently said

that “he would have liked his operas to be given as puppet plays.” Because he thought that

most singers at that time were “too emotional and subjective in their portrayals, interfering

with purity o f vocaUsm and simphcity o f gesture and offending against the intent o f the

composer.” “This anti-romantic aspect o f Busoni’s Turandot makes it much closer in

spirit to Stravinsky’s later Oedipus Rex or Nightingale than to Puccini’s setting o f the Gozzi

fable.”

In Busoni’s Turandot, as soon as Kalaf saw the Turandot’s portrait, he fell in love,

which was different from Puccini’s Calaf who fell in love with the Turandot herself instead

of the portrait. Busoni introduced the Masks in the second act — Truffaldino, Panatalone,

Tartaglia. “The Masks act out their appointed roles in the accepted commedia tradition, but

they never become anything more than masks o f comedy.” The Emperor Altoum, also in

Gozzi’s play, was portrayed as “a vigorous man”. Adelma the role that was similar to Liu

will be dealt in the next chapter.

Perhaps the most striking instance o f the dichotomy of the two composers’ approach is in the riddles. Busoni frames the answers in accordance with his philosophical view o f life: the Mind of Man, Custom, Art. Puccini’s solutions are far more direct and immediate: Hope (what Calaf has). Blood (what Calaf risks), Turandot (what Calaf wins). Busoni followed Gozzi in having Turandot find our Kalaf s name and use it against him, only to repent at the last moment. Puccini has Turandot fail in her endeavors and then, after Calaf has wooded her, learn his secret. Converted, she summons the court and says his name is LOVE.

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4.3 Puccini’s Turandot

The characters and the Voice Assignments:

Turandot (Princess) SopranoAltoum (The Emperor, Turandot’s father) TenorTimur (The dispossessed King o f Tartary) BassCalaf (his son) TenorLiu (a young slave girl) SopranoPing (Grand Chancellor) BaritonePang (General Purveyor) TenorPong (Chief Cook) TenorA Mandarin BaritoneThe Prince o f Persia Silent RoleThe Executioner (Pu-Tin-Pao) Silent Role

It was Renato Simoni who referred Puccini to the play Turandot. Since Puccini

recalled that he had already seen Max Reinhart’s production o f this play, he realized that he

had found his next subject. This realization came to Puccini through Shiller’s translation o f

Turandot rather than Gozzi’s original play.

After finishing his opera, Ü trittico, Puccini was looking for something new to spark

his creative interest. At first, he was interested in Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. In 1919,

when Puccini was in London, he saw the dramatization o f this work by Sir Herbert

Beerbohm-Tree. Oliver Twist so impressed Puccini that he urged his librettists to begin work

on the subject. Simoni and Adami who were Puccini’s librettists at that time finished the

first act of Oliver Twist in 1920. When they showed Puccini the first act with the remaining

scenario Puccini became dissatisfied with this subject. “They were so little to his liking that

he discarded the idea without any further discussion.” The reason was that Puccini’s

“dislike o f customary subjects used to the point o f satiety had by then become so62

insurmountable and his desire for something entirely different so decisive that he believed

having to be guided by these feelings.” Puccini thought that this “entirely different

subject” should be something from fairy-tale. Therefore he was looking for a fairy-tale

that contained deeply moving story and characters. Turandot was his one and only opera,

which derived from a fairy-tale. As soon as he made his choice, he dedicated his last five

years to complete the work.

Puccini him self was a practical joker, “fond o f ingenious mechanical devices, he had

a good Tuscan sense o f humor, human and therefore a little cruel; note the Sacristan’s twitch

in Tosca the mordant caricature in Gianni Schicchi. Since he was also fond of exotic locales

and the eternal challenge o f winning women to the side o f love, he warmed quickly to

Turandot when his Ubrettists suggested it.” Puccini took Andrea Maffei’s translation of

Schiller’s version. As soon as he set up his mind to this opera, Puccini sent a letter to his

librettists to work on this subject. Puccini said that the opera would not work unless they had

“studied, deepened and humanized”. ^

Like all collaborations with Puccini, this one traveled a rocky path. The composer was a perfectionist with stubborn intuitions. This time discouragement, ill health and the sheer size o f the project added to his troubles. Still, when Adami and Renato Simoni showed signs o f losing heart, it was Puccini who railed them. “You shouldn’t work this way,” he wrote. ‘Y"ou’ve always judged me a man who knows his theater. Listen to me, then, and don’t out your heads under your wings. Your wings should be spread out, and we’ll win with heads high!” ^

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4.3.1 The Drama

According to Mosco Camer, the character o f Puccini’s Turandot was quite different

from Gozzi’s play. Puccini’s Turandot had the character o f “inhuman and impersonal figure

until the penultimate scene, an inaccessible Goddess of Destruction and a projection o f the

composer’s Mother — cum — Wife image far more terrifying than the old Princess o f Suor

Angelica.” She was symbolized as “not a creature o f flesh and blood, but an idol, a hieratic

symbol, an apparition - a superb psychological touch and not, as has been suggested, an

offence against what is presumed to be a cardinal rule o f opera, namely to introduce the

leading character as a singing character. Just because Turandot is made to preserve an icy

silence she achieved Puccini’s intended effect o f casting a petrifying, hypnotic spell on the

turbulent crowds in front o f the palace.”

Albert Innaurato compared Turandot’s characters thus: “in Gozzi’s play, Turandot

was more a lady professor than an ogress. She thought o f men with an intellectual’s

contempt that they are sex-driven creatures, necessary solely as breeders. But in Puccini’s,

Turandot tells a farfetched story about long-dead ancestress. Princess Lou-Ling, whose rape

and murder she was avenging. The realism in this opera, heightened and exotic, rendered an

explanation crucial, and this one was palpably ridiculous.”

Puccini’s biographer, George Marek said, “Turandot represented the composer’s

wife, Elvira and also the approaching threat of death. Turandot’s high notes have even been

associated with the eventually fatal construction in Puccini’s throat.” “I remember how his

voice seemed strange toward the end, how he joked with Giovacchino Forzano, the librettist

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o f Gianni Schicchi, and my father about singing the tenor part himself. All this points out the

duality o f the fable.” ^

The character o f Calaf in this opera further contrasts the between the two Turandots.

Turandot’s “inhuman coldness” contrasted Calaf s “insensate passion”. But they both were

portrayed as “heroic superhuman”. This proved that Puccini was using Schiller’s version,

not Gozzi’s, that portrayed the protagonists as more poetic and heroic. In Gozzi’s play there

are no love scenes and no love duet, which played a very important part in Puccini’s

Turandot. The “Romantic Aspect” was not an important part in Gozzi’s play. Adding to

these comparisons, how in Gozzi’s play“ it was Adelma who by a treacherous ruse obtains

the secret o f the Unknown’s name. But in Puccini’s, it was the Prince himself who of his

own will, discloses his identity to the Princess. Again, while in the play it is Calaf s

attempted suicide that softens Turandot’s heart. In Puccini’s, it is Calaf s kiss that acts on

Turandot like a magic spell. Equally poetic is the touch that occurs in the final ‘Jubilation’

before the Divan where Turandot, instead o f announcing C alaf s name, sings ‘II suo nome è .

. . Amore! ’ But the most significant single modification introduced into Gozzi’s plot was the

creation o f the character o f Liu.” More about Liu will be dealt with in the next chapter.

Masks caused a large dramatic problem to Puccini. These characters were very new

to him. In Gozzi’s play the Masks were the “incongruous element” which was intended.

These figures were “Pantalone, the Emperor’s Prime Minister; Tartaglia, his Grand

Chancellor; Brighella, the Master o f the Pages; and Truffaldino, who is Turandot’s chief

Eunuch.” Unlike Puccini’s Masks they did not have any direct influences on the plot. They

65

often made "cheerful cynicism and are not above making obscene remarks and using vulgar

language when among themselves. They refer to the Princess as '^quella porchetta (that little

pig)’ and ‘questa cagna (that bitch)’. These characteristics made Puccini to have more

difficulties to create their characters.

Small wonder that Puccini felt uncertain for some time about the right treatment o f these clowns and even thought of eliminating them altogether. If they were to be retained, then not too much, he admonished his Ubrettist, should be made o f them. They are to be philosophers and clowns, here and there throwing in a comic remark or an opinion. But they must never obtrude; as in Gozzi, they should represent ‘an Itahan element in the midst of so much Chinese matmerism ... with a keen observation o f Pantalone and Co. bringing us back to the reaUty o f our lives.

Puccini recalled the way Shakespeare treated “Trinculo, Stephano and Cahban in The

Tempest who drink, use bad language and speak ill o f the king.” ^ Then he forced his

librettists to work on the Masks using this idea. However, Puccini was worried that these

characters could ruin the opera. “He wondered whether it might not be possible to enrich

them and harmonize them to the Chinese element. This in the event proved the right

solution.” Therefore Gozzi’s four Masks were transformed into “Ping the Grand

Chancellor, Pang the General Purveyor and Pong the Chief Cook.”*

Mosco Camer Puccini’s biographer emphasized the importance in this transformation

that “these changes in names and national costumes were the irmer transformation which

Gozzi’s Masks undergo in Puccini. They now become grotesquely sinister figures, with a

sadistic streak in them and indulging in macabre humor. In other words, they are turned into

Turandot’s creatures, worlds apart from the essentially good natured and almost genial

originals of the play. Yet from time to time Ping, Pang and Pong show themselves awakened

by more humane feelings, as in the scene o f Liu’s death; and in their nostalgia for the66

serenity o f country life they are capable o f a poetic mood wholly unknown to Gozzi’s prosaic

Masks.”

C alaf s father, Timur, in Puccini’s opera emanated from the mixture of K alaf s father

and his tutor Barak in Gozzi’s play. Timur was portrayed as a “ pathetic and musically

almost neghgible father”. Furthermore, Gozzi’s Altoum the “active and energetic Emperor”

was lessened in Puccini’s as “a senile dotard singing in a thin weary voice.”

Another remarkable traits o f Puccini’s skill in this opera is the way he treated his

choms. Before, he used the choms purely for a “musical effect” and it had always been an

“incidental or atmospheric addition.” But in Turandot, the chorus became an active

participant in the plot. In the first act, the chorus has a leading role. For example, Puccini

used the symphonic form (four sections) in the first act. The chorus appears in the first three

scenes and the act ends with the soloists’ section in the fourth scene. Moreover, the drama

evolves around the chorus in the first act by interacting with the soloists and commenting

about the plot. Finally, at the end o f the act, when Calaf tries to strike the gong to reply

Turandot’s riddles, it was not only the main characters who try to stop Calaf, but the chorus

participates in the action to stop him.

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4.3.2 The Music

“In spite o f its unfinished state Turandot is rightly regarded as the summit of

Puccini’s achievement. His musical compositional style remained true to the composer’s

nineteenth century roots. However, his style was toughened and amphfied by the

assimilation o f uncompromisingly modem elements, including bitonaUty and an adventurous

use o f whole-tone, pentatonic and modal harmony.”

In the Book o f ‘Puccini’s Turandof by William Ashbrook and Harold Powers, they

summarized Puccini’s musical-dramatic element: “In Turandot there are four musical

colorations: first, the use of genuine Chinese tunes and of Puccinian pentatonicism; second,

use o f dissonance; third, a Middle-Eastern color; and, fourth, “Romantic-diatonic” style

which Puccini normally used. With these elements, Puccini connected perfectly with the

libretto.”

These colors correlate respectively with four divergent elements in the libretto, namely, the Chinese setting and characters; ‘barbarism’ or cruelty and its consequences; a single subordinate character, the Prince o f Persia; and moments when the heart speaks without exotic accents, most extensively in the utterances of the Unknown Pimce and his father, Timur. Puccini’s assignment of tinte to these incommensurable elements ought to tempt critical assessment. Accepting that Puccini’s Turandot maintains — that the confrontation o f the fiery Prince, and the icy Princess, with all that he embodies musically and dramatically . . . is what this opera is about. Critics might test whether the network of the four tinte, which effectively forwards or obscures the expression of this confrontation.

6 8

Girardi’s Analysis o f the Score

Analysis o f this final work reveals its superb degree o f cohesion. The problem of

structure is particularly delicate because, beside the symphonic and thematic articulation, the

fi'amework, made up o f a succession o f ‘closed’ numbers, stands out strangely. Those who

see in the opera the voluntary epitaph placed cite these numbers by the author on the tomb of

Italian melodramma. They interpret them as an attempt to rediscover the essence o f a

glorious past. But it is equally legitimate to maintain that the twentieth century crisis had

ushered in a long experimental phase in Puccini’s career, directed to finding a link between

the apparatus o f melodramma and the more advanced European experience of his time. This

involved the study o f atmosphere and the combination o f several styles, the true constants of

an unceasing exploration o f genres and forms. Seen firom this perspective the unfinished

masterpiece is the most ambitious experiment ever attempted by an Italian composer before

the radical change o f direction, which followed World War Two.

There is no Italian opera, before Turandot, in which such an organic attempt is made

to integrate music and drama. Puccini set out to recreate the legendary world o f ancient

China, and wanted to create a close link between the exotic and fairy-tale elements by means

of a particular musical tinta. His aim was only to distance the audience firom prevailing

conventions by the originality of his invention. Almost as if it was one of the dramatis

personae, the orchestra, handled delicately even in the most barbaric moments, sets the

atmosphere step by step. Puccini was now at the height o f his powers, inventing colorisitic

effects, which are violent and jewel-like at the same time. ^

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The immense musical apparatus is doubly linked to the demands o f the stage. Puccini had often before planned the musical structure o f a libretto to correspond closely with the dramatic events, and in every work there is a grand scene in which the visual elements interact with the aural. For Turandot he had a special project. The Aristotelian unity o f time, itself a traditional ingredient, becomes a pretext for tracing an arc through the tree acts in which the passing of time becomes a character in the drama, assuming a symbolic value. The ‘thawing’ of the cruel princess, a solution on which Puccini gambled the credibility o f the end, is placed at the height o f a symbohc interchange o f colors, produced by Ughts, costumes and scenes, and reinforced by changing tone-color.

The macrostructures o f Turandot appears ambivalent. In particular, the first act, a jewel o f cohesion, reveals a symphonic form in four movements, with a slow introduction and two scherzos — the episodes o f the three ministers — but it can be read as being in the ‘normal’ form of ‘closed’ numbers: 1. Tempo di attacco. 2. Adagio. 3. Tempo di mezzo. 4. Cabaletto.

Puccini also uses musical themes throughout the opera, although fewer than usual,

which generally reappear as reminiscences, except for the violent opening statement, which

is treated like Wagnerian leitmotif, and runs through the score up to the death of Liù.^^

It seems therefore more legitimate to analyze the first act as a juxtaposition o f episodes, each one with its own meaning, and the entire work as the product o f a compositional method that is deliberately fi-agmented. This is a genuine touch o f modernity which can be added to the work’s many other achievements. Moreover, this approach allows us to overcome the fictitious opposition between symphonic structure and separate numbers and could open a new and more fertile phase of investigation into Puccini’s last masterpiece.^^

4.3.3. The Composing Process

The critic Giulio Confalonieri notes that in Puccini’s earlier operas the characters

“had all gone down unavoidably under an almost scientific calculation of stress and

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weakness. In a fairy tale, however, not only can miracles be accepted as miracles, but the

artist enjoys the privilege of belief or disbehef, o f being present and at the same time aloof.”

Turandot is a myth and story o f Puccini’s life, which, like that o f his verismo characters,

ended in painful despair. Through Turandot, we can see how Puccini was personally

involved in this make-believe fairy tale. “But we could also see an irony of plot, a bizarre

twist that miglit have engaged Gozzi’s sense of fantasy.”

The history o f the creation o f this last opera o f Puccini began and occupied the master for over four years up to his last hours. There had probably been no other work, w tere Puccini was as convinced to have given his utmost, his most personal and individual style, as in Turandot. No other opera has been written with as many agonizing doubts and paralyzing depressions as this one. It is shocking to observe in Puccini’s letters o f those years the vacillation between the hectic restlessness and activity with which he urge his librettists on to constantly greater speed, and the deep despondency, the melancholy paralyzing o f his initiative which threw a dark veil over his life in ever growing measure. This feeling o f unhappiness, of loneliness and of the uselessness o f his work dominated him more and more, and he tried to express this in March 1923 in a poem whose artistic value may be small, which state o f the late Puccini. It is given here in the Italian original and in a literal translation.

Non ho un amico (I have no friend) mi sento solo, (and feel lonely;) anche la musica (even music) triste mi fa. (makes me sad.)Quando la morte (When death comes) verra a trovarmi (to call me,) sard felice di riposarmi. (I will find a happy resting place.)

Oh com’è dura (Oh, how hard is) la vita mia! (my life!)Eppur a molti ^ u t to many) sembro felice. (I appear fortunate.)Ma I miei successi? (And my successes?)

Passano . . . e resta (They are gone . . . ) ben poca cosa. (and little remains.)Son cose effimere: (They are ephemeral:) la vita corre (life goes on) va verso il baratro. (toward the abyss.) Chi vive giovane (The young ones) so gode il mondo, (enjoy life) ma chi s’accorge (but who notices) die tutto questo? (all this?)Passa veloce la giovinezza (Youth passes quickly,) e I’occhio scruta (and the eye) l’etemità. (scrutinizes eternity)

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This poem represented Puccini’s state of mind. These were heart-rending words,

which came from the composer who was loved for his creations. This rarely happened to his

contemporaries. It was very odd to happen for the person who did not experience poverty

except for his several years in the beginning of his career. As this was mentioned in a

previous chapter, this “pessimistic mood” was not a momentary yearning. It happened

throughout his entire life.

Puccini was aware o f his character trait, a tendency toward depression. In Giuseppe

Adami’s collection of Puccini’s letters, he indicated, “I have carried about with me on all my

journeys a large bundle o f melancholy. I have no reason for it, but so I am made, and so too

are made all men who feel and are not fortified by stupidity.”

When he was working in Turandot, anxiety was added to his depression. The anxiety

was produced by “a dark premonition o f approaching death”. Continuing the letter from

above, “I am afraid that Turandot will never be finished. It is impossible to work like this.

When the fever abates it ends by disappearing, and without fever there is no creation.

Because emotional art is a kind of malady, an exceptional state of mind, over-excitation o f

every fiber and every atom of one’s being.” His anxiety pushed the librettists to work

harder, “Work as if you were working for a young man o f thirty, and I shall do my best; and

if I do not succeed it will be my fault.”

While Adami and Simoni were working on the libretto, Puccini was trying to absorb

the atmosphere of ‘Old China’. He studied about Chinese music by reading books and write

down the notes from the Chinese melodies, hi 1920, Puccini visited Bagni di Lucca to visit

his old fiiend, Baron Fassini, who used to be an Italian consul in China, and had collected

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Chinese antiques. Among all the antiques, he had particular interest in the music box, which

played Old Chinese anthem, and Puccini used this anthem in Turandot.

In Turandot, Puccini took a large part o f “shaping the libretto” from the start. What

was important in Turandot was discussing with the Ubrettists the changes o f the characters o f

Commedia dell ’arte. As mentioned before, Puccini despised the comical characters and did

not want to have anything to do with them. He wanted to assign them as small o f the part in

this opera. But after discussion with his librettists, he changed. He had started these

characters in minor roles but later developed to become the part of the action. “Puccini

referred to here as justification for the dramaturgical technique which creates its stronger

effects by introducing comic characters into a tragic story.”

In September 1920, Puccini was sketching his ideas for Turandot, but he was

distracted. He was depressed because o f the slow pace o f his librettists during which he was

“haunted by the fact that he would lose his creativity.” When he finally received the first

act Ubretto in December o f that year he was disappointed. He thought it was redundant and

needed his personal revisions. He finally re-started his composition by June 1921, but again,

the balance between his pace and the librettists’ differed. “Puccini was to blame in great

part. Since he was very hard to satisfy and continually demanding changes of certain

passages as well as rewriting o f entire scenes. On the other hand, the librettists did not find

their work as easy as Puccini had anticipated, and he did not hold back with strong and surely

not always justified his complaints.”

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The process o f his work was also delayed, because in the beginning there existed no clear picture o f the basic structure o f the complete work or at least no full agreement about it among the three collaborators. Puccini had originally intended to have the first act followed by just one concluding act, but gave in reluctantly to the urging of the writers who wanted a three-act version — more persuaded than convinced. During the endless discussions about the final shape o f the two missing acts he returned strangely enough repeatedly to his original suggestion and tried to win over his co­workers. In March 1923, the two-act version was mentioned for the last time in the correspondence. Afterwards, Puccini seems to have been reconciled finally to the three-act libretto, which fi-om now on quite speedily was nearing completion. The composer particularly recommended to the writers the final duet which was not only intended as the climax o f this opera, but whose basic idea — love triumphing over cruel inhumanity — he considered his message to the world.

In September 1922, Puccini composed Turandot up to the point o f Liu's death scene.

Since Puccini was not pleased with the final duet scene, he ceased working further on the

score and turned his attention to the instrumentation while the librettists were re-working the

duet. Turandot was actually finished in the middle o f 1924, except for the final scene. It was

at this time tliat Puccini’s physical illness became obvious.

In February 1924, “a strong irritation of the throat and breathing difficulties appeared

rather surprisingly”. At first, it did not bother him as much as when he was working. But

soon, he realized it was serious. “In March, he consulted his doctor and a throat specialist in

Milan, both of them diagnosed the illness as rheiunatic, called it harmless and coimseled a

short cure in a health resort and a change of air.” Puccini actually went to the resort but

could not stay there for long, due to his worries concerning Turandot. He decided to hide his

fear toward this “fiightening symptoms o f his illness”. In September, Puccini met Artino

Toscanini, who was the artistic director, to discuss the first performance o f Turandot at La

Scala. At this meeting Puccini played the music from Turandot for Toscanini.

Meanwhile, Puccini’s illness was getting worse. When Sybil Seligman visited

Puccini in late September, she found his condition was alarming. She recommended an74

experienced physician who diagnosed Puccini’s illness as having cancer o f the larynx in an

advanced stage. They began radium treatments, which were, in the 1920’s in the

experimental stage, and only two hospitals in Europe offered this treatment. Now realizing

the extent o f his severity o f illness, Puccini discussed Turandot in detail with Toscanini and

said, “My opera will be played unfinished, and someone will come on the stage and tell the

audience: at this spot the composer died.”

By this time Turandot was completed except for the final duet. When Puccini

received the text, he started writing general sketches o f the major section. He took the

sketches with him on his trip to Brussels for his radium treatment. Tonio, his son, and his

stepdaughter, Fosca, accompanied him. He wrote a letter to one o f his close fiiends,

Angiolini asking him, not to reveal his condition to his wife, Elvira, or the others.

Many thanks for your kind and affectionate letter. I am crucified like Christ! I have a collar round my throat which is real tortiure. External x-ray treatment at present — then crystal needles into my neck and a hole in order to breathe, this too in my neck. However, say nothing about it to Elvira or anyone else.

The thought of that hole, with a rubber or silver tube in it - 1 don’t yet know which — terrifies me. They say that I won’t suffer at all and I must just put up with it for eight days so as to leave undisturbed that part of the throat which is to be treated; for to breath in the normal way would upset it. And so I must breathe through s tube! My God, what a horror! I remember that an uncle o f Tabarracci’s went about with a tube all his life. After eight days I shall breathe through my mouth again. What a calamity! It will be a long treatment - six weeks — and terrible. However, they assure me that I shall be cured. I am a little skeptical about it and am prepared for anything. I ’m thinking o f my family, o f poor Elvira. From the day o f my departure my malady has grown worse, hi the mornings I spit mouthfuls o f dark blood. However, the doctor says that this is nothing serious and that I ought to calm myself now that the treatment has started. We’ll see.

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Puccini’s second treatment was on November 24. This was a more complicated

procedure than the first. He had seven radium needles inserted into his neck. The operation

took four hours and was deemed ‘successful’. However, after three days, Puccini suffered

heart failure. Within ten hours, Puccini died. It was November 29, 1924, at 4:00 A.M.

The ‘Mass for the Dead’ was held at Saint-Marie Church in Brussels on December 1,

1924. A special train to Duomo, Milan, transported the body. The official funeral took place

on December 3. A huge crowd came to La Scala, which had to be closed down that day.

The orchestra played Puccini’s funeral music from his opera Edgar directed by Toscanini.

Two years later, Puccini’s son, Tonio, arranged for his coffin to be moved to Torre del Lago

(Puccini’s emotional home) where tonio had built a museum to the memory o f his father.

4.3.4 Alfano’s Ending.

Franco Alfano was forty-eight when he accepted the contract to finish Puccini’s

Turandot. At that time, he was one o f the most famous composers in Italy. He was working

as a director in Turin’s Conservatory o f Music. Author Peter Davis’s indicated that Puccini’s

heirs chose Alfano partly because they thought of him as a faceless composer, unlikely to

create problems or to impose a distinctive musical personality o f his own on the material. He

was a less risky choice than the fiery Riccardo Zandonai, who had been Toscanini’s first

candidate. But he won the vote firom Puccini’s family. As soon as Alfano received

Puccini’s sketches, he immediately realized that it was going to be a trouble completing the

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opera. Puccini left thirty-six pages with notes, sketches, and drafts which he left behind in

Brussels.

There were many controversies about the final ending. William Ashbrook blamed

Alfano for causing a one year delay o f Turandof s premier. On this point, however, Gordon

Smith defended Alfano because o f Toscanini’s fastidious demands on Alfano. George

Marak also defended Alfano by noting that a great deal o f music was willfully cut. The

current score that we see these days has “a hundred bars which is fourteen pages shorter”

than what he had originally composed.

The first edition with extensive revisions ordered by Toscanini was first performed in

1926 at La Scala. In this production Toscanini put down his baton and announced after Liu

death, “Qui finisce Topera, perché a questo punto il Maestro è morto. (The opera ends here

due to the maestro’s death.)” Since Toscanini was not content with Alfano’s ending, this

gave him “justification for refusing to conduct Alfano’s ending.” To Ashbrook’s knowledge,

“the subsequent performances o f Turandot during Toscanini’s regime at La Scala were all

conducted by Ettore Panizza, and Toscanini never again conducted Puccini’s final opera after

April 25, 1926.”

Starting with La Scala, “the first round” o f Alfano’s first edition was performed in

Germany in Dresden on July 4, 1926 and in Berlin on November 6, 1926, and in Vienna,

Austria in October 14, 1926. All performances were sung in German, using Briiggemann’s

translation. In December 1926, Ricordi published Alfano’s ‘second edition’. This edition

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was a “condensation and simplification o f the first”. However, no one is sure which

edition was used at the Metropolitan Opera’s Premiere on November 16, 1926.

In Albert Innaurato’s article, “The Gong Show”, the author compares these two

editions. Innaurato maintains that Alfano’s first version o f the finale comes closer to

Puccini’s intention rather than Toscanini’s heavily cut version. However, nowadays, the

performances we traditionally hear are o f Alfano’s second edition.

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Endnotes (Chapter 4)

1. Camer. Mosco. Puccini: A Critical Biography. Third Edition. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1992. p.509

2. Camer, Mosco. p.509-103. Camer, Mosco. p.5104. Toscanini, Walter. “New Masks for Old Faces.” Opera News 25 (Mar. 4, 1961):.p.95. Camer, Mosco. p.Sl 16. Camer, Mosco. p.5127. Toscanini, Walter, p. 118. Camer, Mosco. p.5159. Toscanini, Walter, p. 1010. Smith, Patrick. “The Riddle o f Turandot: Composers Have Been Seen Gozzi’s Fable in

Many Different Lights.” Opera News 29 (Jan. 16, 1965): p. 2411. Budden, Julian. The New Grove Dictionary o f Opera: Turandot. London: Macmillan

Press Limited, 1992. p. 83812. Smith, Patrick. “The Riddle o f Turandot: Composers Have Been Seen Gozzi’s Fable in

Many Different Lights.” Opera News 29 (Jan. 16, 1965): p.2513. Marggraf, Wolfgang. Giacomo Puccini. New York: Heinrichshofen Edition, 1984. p.

182-3.14. Camer, Mosco. p. 51615. Innaurato, Albert. “The Gong Show.” Opera News 56 (Feb. 1, 1992): 10.16. Camer, Mosco. p. 516-717. Camer, Mosco. p. 51918. Camer, Mosco. p. 52019. Marek, George. “The Fourth Riddle: Why Did Puccini Dally Over Turandot?” Opera

News 34 (Feb. 21, 1970): p. 2520. Budden, Julian p .84121. Hatch, Christopher. “Puccini’s Turandot: The End of Great Tradition.”Opera Ouarterlv 9,

no. 1 (Autumn 1992): p. 150.22. Girardi, Michele. The New Grove Dictionary o f Music and Musicians: Puccini. London:

Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001. p. 576-58023. Walter Toscanini p3424. M arggaf Wolfgang, p. 182-18325. Adami, Giuseppe. Letters o f Giacomo Puccini. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.,

1974. p.277-826. M arg^af, Wolfgang, p. 18427. Adami, Giuseppe, p. 27828. Marggraf, Wolfgang, p. 18629. Marggraf, Wolfgang, p. 18730. Marggraf, Wolfgang, p. 18831. Marggraf, Wolfgang, p. 19032. Marggraf, Wolfgang, p. 192-433. Marggraf, Wolfgang, p. 194-534. Davis, Peter. “The Man Turandot Finished.” Opera News 51 (Mar. 28, 1987): p. 14.

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35. Smith, Gordon. “Alfano and Turandot.” Opera 24, no. 3 (Mar. 1973): p. 223.36. Sadie, Stanley. Puccini and His Operas. New York: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., 2000. P.78.37. Ashbrook, William. ‘Turandot and Its posthumous Prima.” Opera Ouarterlv 2, no. 3

(Autumn 1984): p. 12738. Innaurato, Albert. “The Gong Show.” Opera News 56 (Feb. 1, 1992): p. 1039. Liao, Ping-hui. “Hope, Recollection, Repetition: Turandot Revisited.” Musical Ouarterlv

77, no. 1 (Spring 1993): p. 70.

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CHAPTER 5

PUCCINI'S CREATION OF THE ROLE: LIÙ

The role o f Liù is one o f the most distinct examples o f how the composer drew

from his personal life while constructing his operas. The character Liù was not in the

original play but was totally created by Puccini. The difference between the role of Liù

and the other characters, was that Puccini made up this character on his own and did not

rely on his librettists as be had in the past.

5.1 Historical background

The character o f Liù was derived from his personal relationship with and the

ultimate tragedy o f Doria Manfredi. Doria Manfredi, the daughter of local family at

Torre del Lago, was one of the servants the Puccinis hired when she was sixteen. At that

time, Puccini bad been involved in a car accident in February o f 1903. Doria was hired as

Puccini's servant and personal nurse. Puccini's wife Elvira was a very difficult

“taskmaster” to their servants. “Doria had accepted post against the wishes o f her family,

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having been warned by everyone at Torre del Lago o f Elvira's uncertain temper and

jealous disposition as well as of Puccini's susceptibility to female charms. Yet the girl

seems to have regarded it a privilege to serve in the house o f the illustrious composer.” '

Manfredi was a “gentle, modest girl, and childlike” person and she was devoted to

her master and mistress. “But in her adoration o f Puccini there was, as later events

suggest, an element o f girlish hysteria.” ' One o f Puccini's friends, Vincent Seligman,

recalled of her that, “there was literally nothing that she was not prepared to do and that,

in fact, the whole household revolved round her.” Camer, Puccini's biographer, called

her a “rare domestic pearl.” ^

In September 1908, after five years o f her service, Elvira began suspecting that

there was more to Doria's affection for the older Puccini. Elvira described it as “immoral

conduct”.

It appears that the first insinuations came from one of Elvira's interfering relatives, whose continued presence in the house Puccini had always found so exasperating. Whether there was any truth in their innuendoes we shall never know. Puccini declared later that he had merely been fond o f the girl on account of her devotion as a servant. It may be that he felt, in fact, attracted to her and had indulged in a harmless flirtation; yet, as was to be subsequently established beyond doubt, she had never been his mistress. *

Elvira started public and bitter attacks against Doria. Elvira leveled accusations

and pretended that she had a proof of her misbehavior and spread rumors that she had

caught them in the act of infidelity. Puccini wrote to Sybil Seligman, “the most infamous

lies! I defy anyone to say that he ever saw me give Doria even the most innocent caress!”

Doria was fired. Elvira, not satisfied with this, continued to disgrace her as a “social

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outcast”. She even ordered the local priest to defy her family and kick her out o f the

village. Whenever Elvira would happen to run into Manfredi, she would curse and

humiliate her in front o f the villagers. To get away from this situation, Puccini

“escaped” and traveled to Paris and Milan. He began to suffer from insomnia, which

made him take a sleeping aid drug, veronal. After a short stay in Paris and Milan, he

returned to Torre del Lago.

The climax o f this “sordid drama” occurred on January 23, 1909, when

Manfredi committed suicide in her mother’s house. However, she did not die

immediately, she died five days later. “Puccini was haunted by the vision o f this poor

victim for months after this incident; I cannot get her out o f my mind — it is a continual

torment. The fate o f that poor child was too cmel.” ^

The Manfredi family soon brought charges against Elvira in court. Puccini

wanted to settle the case with the Manfredi family and tried “to persuade them to

withdraw their action” by offering them money. But the Manfredi's totally rejected

Puccini's offer, because they wanted vengeance. The papers were filed in February 1909

and the case was set to be heard at the Pisa court in July of the same year.

Elvira pled guilty on the count o f “libel” but denied the charges of “defamation o f character and menace to life and limb”. While her appeal was being considered, Puccini once more approached the Manfredi family by offering them the considerable sum o f 12,000 lire to withdraw their action. Possibly because they found this offer too tempting to resist, or because they felt that Doria's honor had now been fully redeemed, the Manfredi family withdrew the action and on October 2, 1909 and the Court o f Appeals removed it from the files. ^

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This scandal caused a big sensation in Italy. The whole trial process was

mentioned in detail in most o f the country's newspapers. Some newspapers even carried

the obscene stories about the girl's death. This caused Puccini's rivals to criticize him

even more. Puccini called this period “the saddest time o f my life”. During this

emotional and devastating experience, Puccini almost left his wife. After a temporary

separation, Puccini thought that Elvira had suffered enough punishment. Seeing her

becoming very thin and wretched, he wrote to Sybil that Elvira needed a second chance

and it was not mainly her fault. He also believed that her relatives who had aggravated

her temperament should share the blame, too.

However, it was not until the period o f Turandot that Elvira began to change.

Their relationship grew affectionate again, and that both felt a new sense of belonging

together. Puccini and Elvira were then in their early sixties. The last words Puccini

spoke on his deathbed concerning Elvira were to his stepdaughter. He said, “remember

that your mother is a remarkable woman!” ^

In Gozzi's play, the equivalent role to Liù was the role o f Adelma. However,

unlike Liù, Adelma's social status was different. Adelma was a Tartar princess, whose

country was destroyed by the army of Emperor Altoum, and she was brought to Peking as

a slave for Turandot. She then became Turandot's confidante. Before she came to

Peking, she had already met the "Unknown Gardener", Calaf, and felt attraction for him.

Later during Turandot's trial, she realized that she was in love with the Unknown and felt

jealous o f Turandot. She asked Calaf to run away with her but he refused. Scorned by his

refusal, Adelma sought vengeance and secretly betrayed Calaf and revealed his past and

his name. At the end o f the play, due to her shame from the betrayal, she tried to kill

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herself but was stopped by Calaf. Turandot forgave Adelma and brought her back to her

kingdom.

Puccini partially got the idea of the role Liù from the original character, Adelma.

But he transformed this royal character into a slave girl. The similarity between the two

roles was that they both knew Calaf from the past and secretly had feelings for him, and

later became Turandot's rival. Although the tragic ending is different, Adelma tried to

commit suicide by stabbing herself. Camer compared their motives in this way: “The

motive for Adelma's attempted suicide was despair at the failure of her intrigue to gain

the Unknown for herself. But the motive for Liu's self immolation was her unbounded

love for him, prompting her to die with the secret of his name undisclosed so as to enable

him to win Turandot's heart. Hers was an act o f pure self-sacrifice, moving and heroic.”

From her death, Liù became a tragic character, unlike Butterfly, who was only apologetic

o f her actions o f loving a man who was from another country and culture and decided to

die because o f it. But what was different about Liù compared to Butterfly was that

Butterfly's action did not influence the drama after her death. Liù gave Turandot's

“psychological transformation” to become an affectionate and tender woman.

Puccini did consider providing an iimer link between Liù's suicide and Turandot's subsequent change o f heart — ‘it could help’, he wrote to Adami, ‘to soften the heart o f the Princess. The absence o f this link in the ultimate version o f the opera constitutes a serious psychological weakness and one o f the strangest puzzles in the composer's dramatic thinking. He may conceivably have argued that leaving Turandot wholly unaffected by Liù's death would serve to emphasize all the more strongly, the Princess's inhumanity, so that her subsequent liumanization' under

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the magic spell o f Calaf s kiss would strike with redoubled force. What o f Calaf s reaction? The fact that he too remains unmoved by Liù's death has been interpreted as the sting o f an utter callousness, alienation to our sympathies. Yet a moment's consideration proves the fallacy of this view. Calaf was never in love with the slave girl, he did not desert her for Turandot and it is even possible to interpret Liù's suicide as the act o f a lovesick little girl whose balance o f mind had been upset by the threat o f torture. Moreover, from the moment Calaf sets eyes on Turandot, he is under a hypnotic spell, acting almost throughout as though in a trance and all but oblivious o f the happenings around him. This spell does not cease until he has conquered Turandot's heart. Hence his behavior after Liù's death remains wholly consistent with his general conduct since the opening o f the drama. *

Although Liù's stance is dramatically similar to Gozzi's Adelma, she is different

from Adelma. “Turandot's confidante was ambitious, vengeful and imperious,” *

nonetheless she was a princess. But Liù was o f “a humble origin, slave girl, gentle and

dedicated in her love — a true Puccinian heroine.” ® Moreover Liù was totally Puccini's

“brain child”*. However, Puccini also derived some ideas of Liù's personality from

Gozzi's Turandot's servant, Zuleima, who was kind and gentle and encouraged the

Princess to surrender the growing feelings toward the prince. But most o f all, the most

important facet of Liù's character for Puccini was taken from his memory o f Doria

Manfredi. Her personality, the torture she received from Elvira and her death influenced

the figure.

Around 1920, Puccini and his librettists were thinking of the character and the

name Liù. But it was around March o f 1921, when they first mentioned her by her name

in the libretto. According to William Ashbrook and Harold Powers in, “Puccini's

Turandot”, “the one surviving earlier references is genetic. Shortly after the meetings at

Bagni di Lucca the previous August Puccini had written to ask Simoni; ‘Have you

thought hard about the new interruption o f the piccola donnaT That Puccini referred to

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this character this way suggests that at this point, August 28 1920, she existed more as a

dramatic function than as a realized character. Since Liu participates in the action only at

the beginning and end o f the present Act I and in the concluding number o f the present

Act m , one cannot be sure whether this ‘new interruption’ had to do with one o f what

became these moments or with some since-discarded intervention. What is clear,

however, is that Puccini's question about her refers to something that had already come

up at Bagni di Lucca in August 1920.” ^

By the time o f March 1921, after successfiilly completing their work o f Act n ,

Puccini noticed that the work process was taking longer than he wished. He soon wrote a

letter to Simoni, urging him, “on to the third act, which will be worthy of the preceding

ones . . . I shall be very glad to hear the lament o f Liu and the triumphant finale.” And

several days later, Puccini wrote another letter to his hbrettists. " . . . Pay special attention

to Liu in Act m . You will have to adopt in irregular meter. I have the music ready; it

has Chinese flavor, but I shall have to make some changes. . Puccini was anxious

about how important Liu was to the central story, but these letters had show no indication

o f Liu's fate.

That spring, the role of Liu was taking shape. While revising his previous acts,

Puccini felt more confidant about the creation of the role and he began plans of his own

to decide which singer should sing the role o f Liu. In May 20 1921, he wrote a letter to a

soprano, Gilda Dalla Rizza, who was enjoying success in Mascagni's opera, II piccolo

Marat. “I'm working with faithful zeal at Turandot. I think that little Liu will be a role

for you. Don't imagine that it is o f secondary importance, far fi-om it. Turandot might be

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adapted to la Gilda, but for now she is still in the wings. Liù is becoming, it seems to me,

delicious. In short, whether Liù or Turandot, I am thinking o f my dearest Gildina.”

Puccini and Richard Strauss were perhaps the last who were able to compose their operas with the unquestioning assumption that they would be performed in leading theaters by outstanding singers whose careers were based in the mainstream o f the repertory, and, like composers o f the first half o f the nineteenth century who wrote roles with particular singers in mind, Puccini thought of voice types as represented by individuals he admired. I f Dalla Rizza, as she sang in her mid-twenties, was his vocal prototype for Liù, it was Maria Jeritza in 1922, whose Tosca in Vienna impressed him both by her acting and her tireless, easy upper register, who was to become his prototype for Turandot.

The following letter indicated how dedicated Puccini was to the role Liù. He

instructed the direction of the character to Adami, and he confirmed Puccini's status o f it

as a central role.

Repeatedly, the maestro's suggestions shed hew light for us. And often, one touch, one indication, one intention, one doubt sufficed to open up new aspects, to give the plot unforeseen and original twists, and to enrich it with spiritual significance . . . In this way abandoning Gozzi and Schiller, . . . and grafting onto the plot a Particularly Puccinian character in the poetic Liù, a moved and moving antagonist, gradually a Turandot of our owm, full o f the humanity that Puccini desired, was bom.

In June 7 1921, Puccini wrote to Adami, “I have nothing else to report but I have

done. Non pianger, Liù and Per quel sorriso.” Later in that same month, Puccini made

some changes to Liù's aria. By September 1921 he completed the second act and Puccini

and his librettists were consulting the outline for the third act. Within the third act, one

can see the notable feature of how the role o f Liù was to be used. The idea o f Liù was

88

used as the object to hasten ‘Turandot's emotional capitulation”. But, even in this

state, Liù's suicide is not indicated.

By November 3, 1922, one o f the most important letters was written about Liù.

Puccini finally indicated his decision o f how he would end the third act. In this letter,

Liù's death was mentioned for the first time, “ . . . I beUeve that Liù will have to be

sacrificed to some sorrow, but I think this cannot be developed — unless she is made to

die in the torture episode. And why not? Her death can have a powerful influence in

Bringing about the thawing o f the princess . . . ” *

This seemed uncommon for Puccini to take two years since he started working on

Turandot which used the typical “Puccinian moment”. As for Puccini, he always thought

that those who love will die for love, and Liù's death should be planned at the beginning

o f the first outline. But in this case, Ashbrook and Powers indicated that Liù was not

even a concern because he was having a hard time with the idea o f the princess's

“emotional capitulation”. And eventually, to make the transition to a princess, Puccini

caught the idea o f how he could use the role Liù. This made him pay more attention to

Liù, but he was afi-aid that the development o f Liù might scatter the focus, which should

be set on the prima donna. Puccini worked seriously to give both o f them a dramatic

balance.

A letter dated November 3, 1922 suggests that the idea that Liù might die may have been put forth in the first instance as part o f a final effort to reanimate the crucial denouement o f a project that seemed to have lost its bearings. To illustrate

89

the doldrums that beset Turandot in those days one representative, if minor, point will suffice.

Puccini and his librettists' work was not made any easier by the intensive scene o f

the Princess's cruelty. Furthermore, adding the cortege for the Prince of Persia and the

horrifying details o f further highlights by contrasting “the sympathetic and pathetic

ingenue they had developed during the creation o f Liù.”

By March 25, 1924, Puccini wrote to Simoni that he had completed the whole o f

Act n with half o f Act IH orchestrated. As this was mentioned in previous chapters,

the work was completed up to ‘Liù's cortege’.

5.2 Liu's Three Arias

Turandot is a “numbered opera” in the tradition o f the Itahan Romantic

melodramma, which Puccini composed with fluent structure and “sometimes decadently

up-to-date texture”. All three acts were numbered in Roman numerals. According to

Ashbrook and Powers “upper-case letters denote major musico-dramatic numbers [LB, D

/ n.A, C, D, E / in. A, C, D], as well as expositions [I. A, C / fi.B / lE.B] and conclusions

[n.F / m.E]. Shifts in mise-en-scène — either of set and lighting together (in Act H and

m ) or o f lighting alone (in Act I) - take place at this level.”

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Precise locations of musico-dramatic moments are identified with the help o f the rehearsal numbers found in Ricordi's available pubhshed scores. The rehearsal numbers are the same in the piano-vocal and orchestral scores, and are separately enumerated for each act. Act number and rehearsal number are preceded by 'rh' (for rehearsal). These are sometimes followed by a plus sign and another number, which indicates a location so many measures after the rehearsal number (with the measure at the rehearsal number counted as T). The whole is enclosed in parentheses.

Individual movements within the larger numbers were also numbered separately,

such as static solos and choruses or kinetic action movements. They are marked with

Arabic numerals. “At this level are found the ‘arias,’ for instance Liù's Signore, ascolta.

(I.D.2); dialogues like the Recognition scene for the Unknown Prince, Timur, his father,

and the faithful slave-girl Liù (I.A.2); the scene of the tortured and suicide o f Liù

(in.C.4).” The list below indicated the numbering o f Liù's major arias and her final

scenes in Act I and HI:

Act I: Aria of Liù:

Signore, ascolta. (1.42) Adagio, 4/4, Gb major.

The slave-girl and the princess

Act IQ:1. Tempo d'attacco. Torture o f Liù (QI.20): Sia legatal Sia straziatal

2. Allegro, Andante', 2/4; e minor and G major, over low E pedal point, leading to

3. Aria o f Liù (01.24): tanto amore segreto Lento, 4/4, F major.

4. Tempo di mezzo. Further torture of Liù (10.25 + 6): sia messa alla torturai Allegro moderato, 2/4: Executioners' chorus from I.A.4 IN f m i n o r , accompanied at the tritone (F # under c').

5. Suicide and funeral cortege o f Liù / Timur's grief (10.27): Tu che di gel sei cinta / Ah! Tu sei morta Andantino mosso, 2/4 + 4/4.

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In basic musico-dramatic design, the opera consisted o f a ‘label’ or ‘reminiscence

theme’, which was called leitmoitve in Wagner’s music. Puccini's Turandot was

constructed with similar motives or themes. For example, Puccini gave the Princess three

themes to represent her and even gave one o f the themes a name, ‘Mo-li-hua’. However,

he did not assign any themes to Liù. He simply used pentatonic scales in Liù's arias.

Even though Liù did not receive any themes to symbolize herself, Puccini gave three

arias to the slave-girl, one aria in Act I and two arias in Act HI. This was very unusual

for Puccini to give three arias to a seconda donna. This proved how important Liù was to

the central plot and how she was needed for the dramatic effect. George Marek, in his

article “The Fourth Riddle,” pointed out that there were three beautiful arias which would

represent this opera, and Puccini gave two arias to Liù and other, Nessum Dorma, was

sung by Calaf. This strengthens the importance o f her character. Perhaps Liù was given

a far more important part than her participation in the action warrants. The reason is

clear. In short, Puccini loved her.

5.2.1 Act I: Liù ‘s First Aria

Signore, ascolta, Liù's first aria, originally appeared in the Act I finale. “D” was

the number for the finale scene and this aria appeared as the second aria in the finale.

The rehearsal number was “42”. This aria was the second version firom its original. Per

quel sorriso, in which Liù’s “tone very different firom that o f the tearful Puccinian

sufferer she was to become in Signore, ascolta.” *

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Per quel sorriso was mentioned above in Puccini's letter to Simoni (June 7, 1921)

in which he stated that he had already composed this aria for Liù. The transition from

Liù's original aria Per quel sorriso into Signore, ascolta was not a completely new piece,

but was rather an adaptation o f Per quel sorriso, because, Signore, ascolta was originally

composed in G major.

The original libretto: 24

Per quel sorriso . . s i . , per quel sorriso, Liù non piange più! . . .Riprenderem lo squalhdo cammino Domani all'alba. . . quando il tuo destino, Calàf, sarà deciso.Proterem per le strade dell'esilio,Ei I'ombra di suo figlio, lo I'ombra di un sorriso!

Translation:

For that smile . . yes . . for that smile,Liù will weep no more!We shall resume our wretched wanderings tomorrow at dawn . . when your fate, Calaf, will have been sealed.We shall carry, on the paths of exile, he the ghost of his son,I the ghost o f a smile!

Changed into:

Signore, ascolta!Ah, signore, ascolta!Liù non regge più.Si spezza il cuor!Ahimè, quanto cammino col tuo nome nell'anima, col nome tuo sulle labra!Ma se il tuo destino,doman sarà deciso,noi morrem sulla strada dell'esilio.Ei perdera suo figlio . .io I'ombra d'un sorriso.Liù non regge più!Ah!

My Lord, hear me!Oh, hear, my lord!Liu can bear no more,Liu can bear no more,Alas, how many miles have I walked with your mane in m y heart, with your name on m y lips!But i f your fatetomorrow be decided,we shall die on the path o f exile.He will lose a son . .I, remembrance o f a smile.Liu can bear no more!Ah!

93

Lie(•ppro»€kimgi tkm Prime# mmd tamrftUlj k####eUmr Umi)

mf frinefpa, nfpliokt*9U,rimmgnU)

L iù non rmg. go p in /- S i apoM.Mo i t

oA i.m o, q n a n . to e a m .m i .n o cot tuo no - mo n e t .

rit. a tempo

Example. 6: Liù’s first aria in Act I Signore, ascolta! continue

94

Example 6 continue

Liir

■no, do.ma'H, » a . rà do - ei . *o- s t i no i mor .

s tra . da dol - I ’o s i - Ho !

continue

95

Example 6 continue

LIU

' B f t s----- Jt _P J 1 « d A # —

S i p*T jit.rà tua__ . g iio ... i*r> Vomiiratt\m to r - r i . to ! all.

.....W - J J

P P d a le* ^

L iu non‘>U f>

^ (Arpm,

L e n t o

( h

- g t p i n !

y j »

X A , -

Z

t e - - ■ ■ ■ ■ { # - = )V p K p .. . #m«------------------------------- -----------z : - ----- 11^ k - F - T = j

j W ' w W

to th e ^ ro a a d ,a o b b ia c en d ep u a t ) t, s/m iia, ëin^hiOMMando }

m o l t o r i t

rp

96

Later, parts o f the text became similar, but the first two lines were set very

differently. The first version implied the character taking a more passive role. In the

second version, however, the text made her stronger and more direct by asking. Signore,

ascolta with an exclamation mark (!), as if she were replying to Calaf s words, and letting

him know, no matter what happened, she would be taking care o f the old father. As the

composition progressed, one can find that Puccini gradually developed Liù into a

stronger woman than he originally planned. Therefore, Liù could have more power in the

rivalry with the Princess, and later would have a large impact on the Princess's emotional

transition.

The other change that occurred in the first act regarding the role of Liù was the

transitional passage between Liù’s aria and Timur's speech. “It was half step higher in

Puccini's original version. Now it begins in e minor and slips down a half-step to e fiat

minor without warning in the fifth measure. The whole conclusion of the act was

originally a half-step higher the final version. Liù's forthcoming aria is in G major, and

the rest is in e minor to the end o f the act, except for the final “Mo-li-hua”, which is in E

fiat major rather than its present D major. The transposition down a semitone to the

present form was made by Ricordi, under instructions from Puccini in his letter to Renzo

Valcarenghi on February 21,1924.”

“I remind Maestro (Guido) Zuccoli that it is necessary to transpose the whole Act I Finale down a key, because as it is it's too high. But it's not a difficult matter, since it is taken from e to e fiat. That is, it was largely a matter of changing the initial signature from one sharp to six flats and changing some accidentals here and there. Excerpt for the four measures where the final Mo-h-hua had to be transposed from E fiat major down to D major, few actual positions on the staff lines and spaces would have had to be altered.

97

Signore, ascolta “lay extremely well for the voice, musically.” Her first

passage ended with a pianissimo on a high B flat. Through this, Liù's character was still

humble, quiet and gentle. This aria represented her personahty very well as not yet

aggressive. As the opera develops, one can see her character develop too.

This aria. Signore, ascolta, was one of Puccini's own creations o f Chinese tinta

(color), using a pentatonic scale. “The prevalent Chinese tinta is not necessary confined

to simple and obvious pentatonic tunes.” On March 30, 1921, Puccini wrote to Adami,

“I call your attention to Liù in the third act. It will be necessary to make an irregular

meter (metro innuguale). I have the bit o f music with a Chinese flavor (la musichetta di

sapore cinese) and it will be necessary to adapt it a little.” That the somewhat

experimental and uncertain effect produced in the first part o f Liù's aria by the

“superposition o f an irregular poetic meter over regular musical phrases was part o f

Puccini's conception from the outset” was strongly mentioned in this letter.

5.2.2 Act Three (in.C.) Slave-Girl and the Princess (rh. HI. 20- 28)

Liù appears again in the third scene of Act HI. This time, she is the central focus

of the whole scene. The scene begins with Liù being tortured by the Princess to get the

Unknown Prince's name from her. The torturing begins in e minor and is transposed into

G major with low E pedal point. Then, Liù begins her second aria, Tanto amore segreto.

Liù's character becomes noticeably stronger in this aria. During her torture scene,

the Princess is shocked by the fact that the slave-girl whom she thought humble and weak

98

could turn out to be so strong as to protect the Unknown Prince. Turandot asks Liù the

question o f what made her strong and how she could have the endurance to survive this

torture. Liù rephes to the Princess, “Principessa, L'Amore!” Turandot is very much

puzzled by this answer. Beginning with this aria up to Tu che di gel, was the pivotal

transitional moment for the Princess.

The libretto:

Tanto amore segreto e inconfessato, grande cosi che questi strazi son dolcezze per me perché ne faccio dono al mio Signore. . .Perché, tacendo, io gli do, gli do il tuo amore . . .Te gli do, Principessa, e perdo tutto! E perdo tutto!Persino l'impossible speranza! Legatemi! Straziatemi!Tormenti e spasimi date a me!Ah! Come offerta suprema del mio amore!

Translation:

My secret undeclared love, so great that these tortures are sweet to me because I offer them to my Lord..Because by my silence I give him your love I give you to him. Princess and myself lose everything! Everything! Even the hope impossible of fulfillment! Bind me! Torture me!Let me suffer every torment as the supreme offering o f my love for him!

99

(rs ls ln r her eies n u i e f tes*r»M B ) CtatUvamdo gli oeeU i»mt dittnmgm)

Tanto a - mo

«B.po'mteto a

PP

- s a . to, g r a n .d e c o .a i che q v e . t f i stra - s i son dol

per. che no almio s i .. ces . ne f e r me.

Example. 7: Liù’s second aria in Act DI Tanto amore segreto continue

100

Example 7 continue

L IU

P«T.ekè, ta _ em _ do, r i t . - . ................... ■> t e n y o

io g l i

To g l i do, P r in c ip es ta , « p a r- dodo, g l i do i l tu o a.m o

continue

101

Example 7 continue

lA U

te . in i! t t r a - * i a . t e . m i!___ ran. __con a n im a

J

da . fe a me! A h !Thri.men.ti e spa . s i . m i Co . me o f . m o l t o a l l o f g .

A

LIU

~ fer _ ta e u .p r e _ ma del.m o l t o r i t :

102

For the first time in this opera, Liù finally reveals her true feelings for the

Unknown Prince. This time she does not mince words. Her expression is very direct but

she dared not use the word “Love”. Therefore, Turandot is not the only character who

makes a personal transition in this opera. Through love, Turandot became softer, but for

Liù, this same love she had for years for the Prince, once finally expressed, became a

strength. Liu becomes stronger as she develops in the opera, whereas Turandot weakens.

Ashbrook and Powers view this aria as “the great dramatic skill o f the singer o f

Turandot” and emphasize the importance o f this aria. This single moment, could never

be “enough to counteract the overwhelming effect o f Liù's answering aria Tanto amore

sergreto, not to mention the powerful ensemble o f her heath and funeral cortege.”

This was a shift o f focus away from Turandot, “the principal character who must change

and eventually does change, and on to Liù, a secondary character who does not change,

who remains only ever more pathetically herself.”

Moreover, they state that this aria is a needed relief in the scope o f the act. “Its

relatively low tessitura provides necessary relief in a scene that was pretty much written

at the top of the voice. With some release o f tension, the scene seems shorter, in fact

with the aria than without it.” Furthermore, this aria is required for Turandot’s

transition to be done with conviction.

The statement, ‘irregular meter’ suggests something like the eventual text o f Liù’s Tanto amore segreto, with its mixture o f mostly unrhymed imparisillabo (unequal-syllable) lines o f different lengths. The irregular lines o f Liù’s lyric apostrophe to her secret love were adapted to an instrumental melody of an exceedingly regular, even repetitious, phrase design (rh EH. 24 through rh 111.25), in the manner called parlante melodico by Abramo Basevi, in which the orchestra

103

carries a continuous melodic line that the voice or voices join and leave in a more or less unpredictable fashion.^^

This aria is the first static movement in a number whose opening kinetic movement — IH.C.l, the first torture o f Liù — is erected over a low E pedal sustained throughout. G major and F major triads alternate over the pedal-point low E while the melody o f the Prince's outburst Scontetrete I suoi tormenti I (You shall pay for her torments) is repeated over and over in the orchestra. The low E — and the low register altogether — vanish as the Princess asks Liù the source o f her courage: Chi pose tanta forza net tuo cuore? (rh 111.23 + 9). Principessa, Vamore, replied Liù, and Turandot repeats the worà. Amore? questioningly.^

The long pentatonic melody is composed, in Puccini's typical manner, o f two short motives combined and recombined at various levels and in slightly varied shadings. In the first half of the aria only middle- and high-register instruments are used. The tonality is F major, but only in the second half does it begin to be stabilized. At this point the low register is reestablished in the orchestral texture with a pedal-point low F in the bass that finally resolves the pedal-point low E o f the preceding kinetic movement. Even so there is no actual arrival at a tonic triad over this bass F until the last word o f the aria (rh in.25), and that only as the resolution o f a suspension. The extra sense o f suspended time, of ‘stasis’, so brilliantly achieved by this technical means is expressivelt matched in the text that was supplied for the aria, a young girl’s dreamlike fantasy: Liù declared that her love, secret and unconfessed, makes even her torments seem sweet, because by refusing to reveal the Prince's name she can sacrifice her own hopeless love and give him what he most wants, Turandot’s love.^^

The Chinese flavor o f the melody o f Tanto amore segreto was heightened by its

overall tonal-melodic design. Using Chinese flavor happened to be the sophisticated

level they used to express the usual superficial exoticism in Europe. The melodic

development was based on a technique o f modulation, “that shifts fi-om one pentatonic

module into another through the conversation o f an accessory tone into a principal one.”

The Chinese technique term was biàn yîn, the exchange tone.

104

The ‘exchange tone’ in 1-2 measures of the second aria was e, used only as upper- neighhor-tone to d (and elsewhere almost imperceptibly as lower-neighbor-tone to f), in the pentatonic module c - d - f - g - a . In the 3-4 measures o f this aria, e was exchanged for f and becomes a principal tone, effecting a change to another pentatonic module, g - a - c - d - e . In 5-6 measures, pitch-class f returns, but the a was momentarily exchanged for b'’, which was used as a lower-neighbor-tone to c. thereby introducing a brief and subsidiary third pentatonic module b ^ - c - d - f - [g], which then leads the melody, in measures 6-8 of the example, back into the first module.

One can hardly suppose, however, that Puccini would have been thinking o f a change o f pentatonic module such as the one in measures 3-4 as an “exchange- tone”. It was rather part o f an overall expressive scheme that involved the ‘Chinese’ pentatonic on the one hand, and on the other an accompaniment that would suggest tonal centers and allow for harmonic progression without too strongly evoking nonnal European tonal-harmonic progressions inappropriate to the sapore cinese. Though the aria is in F major, the harmonies for the first phrase o f the melody (as in the mm. 1-2) are clusters emphasizing notes of predominant harmonies (in F major, pitch-classes f - g - bb - d) plus pitch-class c completing the pentatonic module. For the second phrase the emphasis is on the a minor triad, which acts as a weakened substitute for the dominant o f F major, containing as it does the leading-tone and the fifth degree (e-and c) o f the key o f F major, while its second and dissonant fourth degrees (g and bb) are replaced witha.

Tu che di gel was Liù’s final aria. The stronger Liù could not bear anymore.

Since the torture was going on she thought she could not trust herself anymore. Before

she sings the aria she talked to herself, “Più non resisto! Ho paura di me! Lasciatemi

passare! Lasciatemi passare! (I can stand no more! I don't trust myself! Let me pass!)”

Even though she was being tortured, she was worrying about the Prince. One could think

that before she sings the aria she had already made up her mind to kill herself in order to

save her Love. Before the aria, Liù called the Princess for the attention, “Si, Principessa,

ascoltami! (Yes! O Princess, hear me!)”

105

The libretto:

Tu che di gel sei cinta, da tanta fîamma vinta,I'amerai anche tu!Prima di questa aurora, io chiudo stanca gU occhi, perché egli vinca ancora . . .Ei vinca ancor!Per n o n . . . per non veserlo più! Prima di questa aurora, io chiudo stanca gU occhi Per non vederlo più!

Translation:

You who are girdled with ice, vanquished by such fire, you will love him, too!Before the break of day I shall close my tired eyes, that he m ay win yet again . . . May he win again!N ever. . . never to see him more! Before the break of day,I shall close my tired eyes Never to see him more!

Even Liu, hardly a violent type, predicted that Turandot would be vanquished by

the flame o f the Unknown Prince's love. Indeed, Liù explained that she was willing to

die so that the Prince could be vanquished again. Suddenly, she pulls out the dagger

firom the soldier next to her and stabs herself. Her action astonishes all the people,

especially the Princess. The Princess's icy wall is finally broken down.

106

S i, f t r j j t .c i _ pea _ aa,a fa - mi!sostenendo

I'M.

LIU con doloroaa espressione

Tu,Audi? mosao = ae (eonnnpoeo i ’a g iia » io n e) can doloroaa aapraaaiona

eke d i g e l set. cin - ta,.

tan - la f ia m -m ada vtn

Example. 8: Liù’s third aria in Act m Tu che di gel continue

107

Example 8 continue

t-IC

( p i . i j < « /_Cn»m/* A) P rL m a d i qiteata au _ ro _ ra , _

a . t e m p o

i - o chiudo stanca- g lio c . chi, r i t : ..........................

a . t e m p o

parchsEglivinca an .

p o o o r i t :

continue

108

Example 8 continue

LIT

m «I p o e o r i t ; ,

-C O

a . t e m p o

ra.a. tempo

p er non vm .der. lo rail:

P er

creac.com colore

P r i .m a d i que. ataaujro

ca lo re

continue

109

Example 8 continue

u c A I .

to chiu.do stan .ea eominoiaado a rail.

ereae.9 aUarr.

glioc chi. p e r non ve . d e r . lo

^ » nmmh, «he «aetches e dmgger A-om * soldier and stabs herself mortalij. She looks (PrendfditoTfrttm- a # pmffnaUa mm *otdalo*titra/ig^ a wwrte.Gira mtamoflioee/U

pû tî

]a tempo,ma sostenendo

j j eon molta esprese.

110

The ‘Dissonance’ tinta (color) was represented as the ‘Execution motive’. This

movement was mostly an outgrowing convention of the nineteenth century. This

‘Execution motive’ represented mystery and sometimes terror, which was called diabolus

in musica, “an unprepared and unresolved augmented fourth,” the tritone. Puccini

started to use this motive in Tosca, (the “Scarpia motive”), “rising triads o f B flat major,

A flat major, and E major over the descending bass line B flat, A flat and E.” This was

a classic example o f the diabolus in musica. The most remarkable passage based on the

diabolus in musica that Puccini used was in Act HI, Liù's torture and death, where the

“interval - c' dominates the whole passage”.

5.2.3 Cortege o f Liu & Prince o f Persia

The Prince o f Persia who was killed in the very beginn ing of the opera was the

“unsuccessful shadow” of Calaf in the same way that Liù, the slave-girl was the

“unsuccessful shadow” of the Princess, Turandot. Liù's death and the cortege in Act Efl

paralleled the funeral cortege for the Prince of Persia in Act I. “Both pieces were in the

same e flat, and the full authentic cadences followed by a pause that conclude the two

pieces were the first full stops in Act I and Act m , respectively.” Furthermore, both

pieces were “manifestations of the funeral-march topos - in Act I for the Prince of Persia

with fi-equent Middle Eastern tonal coloring, in Act DI for Liù, and the slow pace as by

the steady and monotonous short-short-long anapest rhythm that dominates them both.”

“But where the funeral anapest (short-short-long) in the Act I cortege for the Prince of

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Persia had melodic direction, with frequent “Middle Eastern” augmented seconds and

other not-quite-diatonic intervals, in Liu's diatonic cortege in Act HI the slow anapest was

simply three attacks at the same pitch, thus without melodic content. The third stroke of

Liu's anapest, moreover, was prolonged not by being sustained, as in the melody for the

Prince o f Persia’s cortege, but rather with a melodic extension o f consistent contour.

The openings o f the two melodies are shown below. In similar manner, Liu’s funeral

cortege also concluded in close parallel with the ending o f the Prince o f Persia’s funeral

cortege.

B

Example 9: Tu che di gel and Persia Prince's theme

112

The anapests in the respective third measures were prolonged by further precadential anapests filling in between scale degrees 2 and 4 and harmonized with various sorts o f pre-dominant ii chords and iv chords. In the final authentic cadences in e flat minor, the pitch class d natural, the leading-tone o f the key, is o f course present in the respective dominant harmonies, but in Liu's cortege its appearance as leading-tone at the end o f the number is one o f only two such places in the piece where the true dominant harmony of the key is heard.

And though d-natural appears several times earlier in the Prince of Persia’s cortege, it does so either in passing or as o f a D major triad, a harmony deUberately far removed firom the principal tonality. The first and only occurrence o f d-natural as part o f a true dominant in e flat minor is similarly at the end o f the number.

The Prince o f Persia's cortege melody was aligned with the beginning of Liu's Tu

che di gel. “The melodic extension o f Liu's anapests strongly resembles that moment in

the Prince o f Persia’s melody where the anapestic rhythm is broken and the diatonic

replacement o f the exotic opening has been completed.”

The instrumentation too, including the prominent use o f the piccolo in an otherwise very low-lying texture, contributes to making the parallel between these two medial endings clearly audible, so that the three final chords in each case are easily heard as anapestic medial conclusions in the funereal topos, expressing the same kind o f finality in death for both these “shadows” of the protagonists. It has already been noted that the authentic cadence, conclusive ending in the respective act in question, which of course confirms not only the structural but the expressive parallel.

The rhythm and contour of Liu's funeral cortege were preserved. However, the

tempo was changed and the dynamics and voicing were very distorted. “The three-stroke

repeated-chord anapest was there. A little faster and a lot louder as though in rude

parody o f the immediately preceding soft chordal anapest that ends the funeral cortege,

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and in hollow fourths and fifths, like the open fburth-and-fifih orchestral voicings o f all

four o f the b flat minor interstices after Liu's death, between rh in.29 + 8-9 and rh IH.33

+ 9-10. Following the vulgar opening anapest comes an equally vulgar transformation of

the stepwise melodic expansions that had following Liu's anapests.”

5.3 Liu & Prince Calaf

One can see yet another aspect o f Liu's and the Prince's relationship. It might

seem hard to accept that the Prince did not return Liu's great and ultimately sacrificial

love which she expresses to him. But, in this opera, the Prince did not love the slave-girl.

Liu's love was one-sided, and until this point in the opera, she had kept it to herself.

However, the prince had both gratitude and pity for her which was clearly explained

throughout Act I in his aria. Non piangere, Liu (I.D.3.). But one's understanding of this

situation quickly changes because o f Liu's intense pathos, torture, rejection, suicide, and

fimeral cortege. It is difficult for one to see the Prince's reaction within the opera.

However, it is clear that his respect for Liù, whatever her feeling for him, was that of “a

nobleman for an extraordinarily loyal retainer.”

Her loyalty was worth defending. When she was being physically abused, the

Prince somewhat struggles to her defense. He is shocked and moved when she falls

lifeless at his feet. But his heart, in the plot, is taken somewhere else. And it was that

engagement o f his heart — “the confi-ontation o f the fiery Prince, with all that he embodies

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musically and dramatically, and the icy Princess, with all that she embodies musically

and dramatically,” that keeps him from being moved by Liu's death.

5.4 Liù as a role

Liù is a true ‘Tuccinian” lyric soprano role. The lyric soprano is the type o f role

and singer that is the most popular with operatic lovers and audiences. Steane referred

this soprano as “the world's girlfriend”. The lyric soprano has the most generous and

appealing repertory in the operatic literature. Major roles for lyric sopranos would

include: Mimi in La Bohème, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Donna Anna in Don Gioavnni,

Micaela in Carmen, Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Marguerite in Faust, Butterfly in

Madama Butterfly, and Liù in Turandot. The typical lyric soprano’s characters were

“gentle, affectionate, and loyal, and she would remain till death us do part, as it normally

does in the final act.”

The range for the lyric soprano varies around two octaves C4 to Ce. “No

exceptionally penetrative powers were needed, though tastes differ nationally on the

matter o f timber. Sheer volume was certainly not a prerequisite, and yet the large heart

does not go well with the small voice. The trills, staccatos, scales and arpeggios o f the

coloratura specialist were to be cultivated, for nobody wanted a Marguerite with a lazy

trill and a smudged scale in the Jewel Song, and Donna Elvira, Fiordihgi, Pamina and

even the Countess needed to move with grace and agility. Even so, the lyric soprano may

115

pass a whole season wondering whether she has not acquired these accomplishments in

vain. Purity and clarity came uppermost.” ^

The representative historical singers who were in this category are: Licia

Albanese, Frances Alda, Montserrat Caballé, Victoria de los Angeles, Emma Eames,

Geraldine Farrar, Mirella Freni, Alma Gluck, Dorothy Kirsten, Pilar Lorengar, Adriana

Maliponte, Anna Moffo, Elisabeth Rethberg, Renata Scotto, Eleanor Steber, and Teresa

Stratas. However, the role o f was occasionally performed by heavier voices, such as

Leontyne Price and Renata Tebaldi.

The circumstances o f the role of Liù are that the role should be performed with

the right vocal weight and warmth in the voice, which was in the proper Puccinian style,

hi this way, Puccini composed music that is difficult for sopranos to perform. The

Puccinian soprano is required to sing notes in the extreme registers and sometimes, even

sustained at the pianissimo dynamic. The voice is also required to sing in the upper

tessitura, as well as the solid low notes that could cut through the orchestra. “A sense of

the grand vocal gesture was needed to fill the music with passion and personality.”

“Liù was a combined character, and thought she did not advance the essential

drama by one particle, it must be conceded that her presence serves to enlarge both the

emotional and musical range o f the opera considerably, and that she remains the only

character who touches our heart. Puccini needed the poignant element embodied in Liù

to kindle his fundamentally ‘tragic’ imagination. In addition, her death serves to reduce

the curiously hybrid nature o f Gozzi's tragic-comedy, though, admittedly, not to the

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extent of removing this unsatisfactory feature altogether. In a sense, the happy ending of

the opera comes as a perilous anticlimax after final scene.” * Liù was the first seconda

donna who was used as main dramatic catalyst for the plot. Finally, it was Liù.

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Endnotes (Chapter 5)

1. Gamer, Mosco. Puccini: A Critical Biography. Third Edition. New York: Holmes &Meier, 1992. p. 195

2. Camer, Mosco. p. 1963. Camer, Mosco. p. 1984. Camer, Mosco. p. 1995. Camer, Mosco. p. 2006. Camer, Mosco. p. 201-2027. Camer, Mosco. p. 5178. Camer, Mosco. p. 5189. Ashbrook, Wilham. and Powers, Harold. Puccini’s Turandot: The End o f Great

Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. p.69-7010. Ashbrook & Powers. The letter dated March 27 1921; p. 7011. Adami, Giuseppe. Letters of Giacomo Puccini. London: George G. Harrap & Co.

Ltd., 1974. p. 27212. Ashbrook & Powers p.7013. Ashbrook & Powers p. 70-71

14. Ashbrook & Powers p.71.15. Ashbrook & Powers p.7516. Adami, Giuseppe. p.20717. Ashbrook and Powers p.80-8118. Ashbrook & Powers p.8119. Ashbrook & Powers p. 132

20. Ashbrook & Powers p.8621. Ashbrook & Powers p. 1322. Ashbrook & Powers p. 1523. Ashbrook and Powers p. 33-3424. Ashbrook and Powers p. 6825. Ashbrook & Powers p .10026. Ashbrook, William. The Operas o f Puccini. New York: Oxford University Press,

1968. p.22227. Ashbrook & Powers p. 9828. Adami, Giuseppe, p.27229. Ashbrook & Powers p. 9930. Ashbrook & Powers p. 4031. Berrong, Richard. “Turandot as Political Fable.” Opera Quarterly 2, no.3 (Autumn

1984): p.7132. Ashbrook & Powers p. 10133. Ashbrook & Powers p. 10734. Ashbrook & Powers p.21 from Fritz Noske, The musical figure o f death. The Hague,

1977, in Chapters.35. Ashbrook & Powers p. 11036. Ashbrook & Powers p. I l l

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37. Ashbrook & Powers p. 13438. Ashbrook & Powers p.4139. Steane, John Barry. Voices: Singers & Critics. Portland: Amadeus Press, 1992. P. 1640. Steane, John Barry, p. 16-1741. Steane, John Barry, p. 1842. Eckert, Thor Jr. “Turandot: Giacomo Puccini.” Opera Quarterly 6, no. 1 (Autumn

1988): p. 108

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Arnold, Harry. ‘Tuccini: Victim and Victor.”Opera News 16 (Jan. 28, 1952): 12-15.

Ashbrook, William. ‘Tuccini as Portraitist.”Opera News 17 (Dec. 8, 1952): 26, 28.

Ashbrook, William. “Turandot and Its posthumous Prima.”Opera Ouarterlv 2. no. 3 (Autumn 1984): 126-131.

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Ashbrook, William. The Operas o f Puccini.New York: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Bailey, Howald. ‘Tuccini’s Pot o f Gold.”Opera News 34 (Mar. 7, 1970): 16.

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Brecker, Ivor. “An Operatic Pilgrimage.”Opera 28 (Autumn 1977): 14-23, 122.

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Camer, Mosco. The New Grove: Master o f Italian Opera.New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1983.

Curtis, Holbrook. Voice Bmlding and Tone Placing.New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1896.

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Davis, Peter. “The Man Turandot Finished.”Opera News 51 (Mar. 28, 1987): 14-17.

Digaetani, John Louis. “Puccini The Poet.”Opera Ouarterlv 2. no. 3 (Autumn 1984): 36-57.

Dunkley, Ferdinand. The Buoyant Voice.Boston: C. C. Birchard and Company, 1942.

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Eckert, Thor Jr. “Turandot: Giacomo Puccini.”Opera Ouarterlv 6. no. 1 (Autumn 1988): 107-9.

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Griffith, Katherine. “A Question o f Personality.”Opera News 23 (Dec. 22, 1958): 4-7.

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Innaurato, Albert. “The Gong Show.”Opera News 56 (Feb. 1, 1992): 8-11.

Jacob, Heinrich Eduard. “The Essence o f Puccini.”Opera News 15 (Mar. 12, 1951): 6-7.

Jellinek, George. “Puccini Master o f Monotone.”Opera News 18 (Dec. 14, 1953): 4-6.

Jones, Gaynor. “Puccini Beyond the Façade: a Life o f Love-hate Relationships.”Opera Canada 20, no.4 (Winter 1979): 8-10.

Jones, Harry Earl. A Concise Biographical Dictionary o f Singers.Philadelphia: Chilton Book Company, 1969.

Kalmanoff, Martin. “Words by Puccini.”Music Journal 16 (Feb. 1958): 26, 37.

Large, John. Vocal Registers in Singing.Paris: Mouton, 1973.

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Liao, Ping-hui. “Hope, Recollection, Repetition: Turandot Revisited.” Musical Ouarterlv 77. no. 1 (Spring 1993): 67-80.

Macdonald, Ray. Puccini: King o f Verismo.New York: Vantage Press, 1973.

Marek, George. “Puccini for The Public.”Opera News 15 (Mar. 12, 1951): 15.

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APPENDIX A

Puccini’s composition

OPERAS

TITLE

Le F/7/; (lact)

(Revised version in 2 acts)

Edgar (4acts)

(Revised Version in 3acts) Manon Lescaut

La Bohème

Tosca

Madama Butterfly

(Revised Version)La Fanciulla del West

La Rondine

n Trittico:

Il Tabarro

Suor Angelica Gianni Schicchi

Turandot

LIBRETTO

Fontana

Fontana (Based on Musset’s La Coupe et les Lèves)

Leoncavallo, Praga, Oliva, lUica, Giacosa (based on Prévost’s novel)Giacosa, Illica (based on Mürger’s novel)Giacosa, Illica (based on Sardou’s drama)Giacosa and Illica (based on Belasco’s dramatized version of s story by J. L. Long)Civinini, Zangarini (based on Belasco’s drama)

Adami (based on a German libretto by Willner and Reichert)

Adami (based on Gold’s La Hoppenlande)ForzanoForzano (based on an episode in Dante’s Inferno)

Adami, Simoni (based on Gozzi’s play)

FIRST PRODUCTION

Milan, Teatro dal Verme; May 31 1884 Turin, Teatro Regio; December 26 1884 Milan, Teatro alia Scala; April 21 1889 Ferrara; February 28 1892 Turin, Teatro Regio; February 1 1893

Turin, Teatro Regio; Febmary 1 1896 Rome, Teatro Costanzi; January 14 1900 Milan, Teatro alia Scala; Febmary 17 1904

Brescia; May 28 1904 New York, Metropolitan Opera House;December 10 1910

Monte Carlo;March 27 1917

New York, Metropolitan Opera House;December 14 1918

Milan, Teatro alia Scala; April 25 1926

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CHURCH MUSIC

Vexilla Regis prodeunt, for two-part men’s choms and organ (1878) Lucca; 1878Motet and Credo in Honor o f San Paolino Lucca; 1878Mass for four voices and orchestra (incorporating the above two pieces) Lucca; 1880

(Published 1951)Salve del d e l regina, for soprano and harmonium (before 1880)Requiem for mixed voices and organ or harmonium (1905)

CHORAL MUSIC

Cantata; / Figli d'Italia bella (1877)Cantata a Giove (1897)Inno a Diana (Salvatori), for chorus and piano (published 1899)Avanti, Urania! (Fucini), for choms and piano (published 1899)Orchestral version known as Inno di Roma (published 1919) Rome; June 1920

ORCHESTRAL WORKS

Preludio Sinfonio (1876)Capriccio Sinfonico (piano duet version, published 1884) Müan, Consertatoire:

July 14 1883March, Scossa elettrica (1896)

CHAMBER MUSIC

Scherzo for string quartet (between 1880 and 1883)String Quartet in D (between 1880 and 1883)Fugues for string quartet (1882-1882)La Sconsolata, for violin and piano (1883)Three Minuets for string quartet (published 1890)Crisantemi, for string quartet (published 1890)Fragment o f a Piano Trio (date unknown)

ORGAN AND PIANO

Several early pieces for organ (before 1880)Two pieces for piano (published 1942): Foglio d ’Album Picolo Tango

SONGS WITH PIANO

Melanconia (Ghislanzoni) (1881)Alio ch ‘io sard morto (Ghislanzoni) (1881) Noi Leggeremo (Ghislanzoni) (1882)Spirto gentil (Ghislanzoni) (1882)Storiella d ’amore (Ghislanzoni) (1883) Romanza, Menti a ll’awiso (Romani) (1883) Solfeggi (1888)Sole e amore (1888)E ’l ’uccellino (Fucini) (1899)Terra e mare (Panzacchi) (1902)Morire? (Adami) (1917)

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APPENDIX B

Turandot Plots Synopsis

Act I

In the Imperial City o f Peking, during legendary times, a bloodthirsty mob has assembled for the execution o f the prince o f Persia, the latest ill-fated man to try to win the hand o f the Beautifiil Princess Turandot. She has sworn to marry only if her suitor can successfully answer three riddles she poses. If he fails, the sentence is death.

While the crowd mills about, Timur, the exiled Tartar king, and his faithfiil slave Liù arrive in the city. Caught in the melee, Timur falls to the ground. Liu calls for aid go unheeded until a young man steps forward to help. It is Timur's son Calaf (the Unknown Prince), who has been wandering incognito. With father and son reunited, Liù explains that she has been Timur’s tireless protector and companion because once in the king’s palace Calaf had smiled upon her.

The moon rises, and the people grow restless waiting for the executioner. Moved to pity by the sight o f the Prince of Persia, they appeal to Turandot for mercy. The princess appears in a shaft o f moonlight on the imperial balcony. Silent and aloof, she motions for the execution to proceed.

Entranced by her beauty, Calaf determines to accept the challenge o f the riddles. Despite the entreaties o f Liù and Timur, as well as the frantic intervention o f the comic court officials Ping, Pang, and Pong, Calaf strikes the ceremonial gong with the cry, “Turandot!”

Act n

Scene one: Royal PavilionPing, Pang, and Pong lament the bloodshed and cruelty that Turandot has brought

to China and dream o f the day when she will be transformed by love.

Scene two: Before the Vast Staircase o f the Imperial PalaceThe people o f Peking assemble for the contest. The aged Emperor Altoum tries to

dissuade the Unknown Prince from rushing to certain death, but Calaf holds firm. Heralded by the voices of children, Turandot herself appears and takes her place before the emperor.

She recounts the story o f her ancestor. Princess Lo-u-Ling, whose abduction, rape, and murder by a foreign prince in ancient times has led the Turandot’s own quest for vengeance. She warns Calaf not to tempt fate, but he is adamant.

Turandot poses the three riddles, and Calaf answers each one correctly. Turandot then appeals to the emperor to set aside the young prince’s victory, but Altoum refuses. Turandot confronts Calaf, demanding to know whether he will take her even by force, but he replies that he wants her love. As proof o f his feelings, he offers to forfeit his own life if she can discover his true identity by the following morning.

128

A c tm

Scene one: The Garden o f the Imperial PalaceBy Turandot's command, all Peking seeks to discover the Unknown Prince’s

name this night. Ping, Pang, and Pong alternately attempt to threaten and bribe Calaf into fleeting the city. Calaf refuses.

The mob drags Timur and Liù forward and calls for Turandot. The princess orders the captives tortured. Liù declares that she alone knows the Unknown Prince’s identity. Then she kills herself, carrying the secret to her grave in order to ensure the triumph o f C alaf s love.

Overwhelmed with grief, Timur laments beside the lifeless, Liù, and the crowd is struck with fear and remorse. Liù’s body is home from the scene, and Calaf confronts Turandot. He tears the ceremonial veil from her face and passionately kisses her.

At last, Turandot admits her love for Calaf but weeps for the loss o f her former glory. Calaf promises her that her glory is just beginning through the power of love. As final proof o f his own feelings, he places his life in Turandot’s hands, revealing his name to her.

Scene two: Before the Vast Staircase o f the Imperial PalaceAs dawn breaks, Turandot announces to the emperor and the people of Peking

that she has discovered the stranger’s name; it is Love. Turandot and Calaf passionately embrace, and the crowd joyfully voices a hymn of praise to the glory o f love.

129