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Turandot
Giacomo Puccini 1858 1924 /Luciano Berio 1925 2003
Dramma lirico in tre atti
e cinque quadri
libretto by
Giuseppe Adami
and Renato Simoni
worldpremiere
26 April 1926
Teatro alla Scala
Milan
Puccini became acquainted with the Persian tale of Turandot through adaptations by Gozzi and Schiller; he studied the Chinese pentatonic scale before composing the music. The icy majesty of Turandot, the remote princess who eventually gives in to true love, is contrasted with the tender lyricism of her counterpart Liù and with the commedia dell’arte humour of the three ministers. The wealth of musical invention work masks the work’s difficult origins. It remained unfinished at the time of Puccini’s death, and was subsequently completed first by Franco Alfano and, in 2001, again by Luciano Berio, whose new finale musically depicts the heroine in a more human light.
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