The not-so-insane after all diary of Noÿs Lambent: Turandot

About Me

Location: Athens, Greece

A thing of beauty is a joy forever
Its loveliness increases
It will never pass into nothingness
But still will keep a bower quiet for us
And a sleep full of sweet dreams and health and quiet breathing
Endymion,J.Keats
End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back and all change to silver glass and then you see it.White shores and beyond. A far green country under a swift sunrise
Gandalf
Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition
I.Asimov
Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring
C. Sagan
'O me!O life! of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless--of cities filled with the foolish;what good amid these,O me,O life?
Answer.That you are here that life exists,and identity;that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.'
W.Whitman

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Turandot

One of the operas by my beloved Giacomo Puccini and probably one of the underestimated operas in the history of the 'sport', Turandot, his final masterpiece with the aria 'Nessun Dorma', after which the composer died and the opera was left to be delivered to its end by Franco Alfano, who, in contreverse to Puccini's legacy, gave the opera a 'happy ending' with the supposed 'lovers' staying together in the end.

Turandot, a princess of China, denies marrying anyone unless he answers 3 riddles, by pain of death. Many royal descendants found death for not finding the corect answers, but then comes our hero, a young prince, who finds his long lost dying royal father
accompanied by a girl, Liou, who has loved him (the prince) all her life and willingly gives her life up to keep his secret, his name , from Turandot and subsequently save him from death. Our prince answers the 3 riddles (Hope, Blood and Turandot being the answers) and offers to the princess a chance to escape marriage if by morning she discovers his name. Turandot tortures Liou who commits suicide after a uniquely beautiful aria where she sings of Love and its beauty (in the original performance the Great Arturo Toscanini in La Scala laid down his batton and stepped down as the curtain lowered slowly - the composer died here "Qui finisce l'opera, perché a questo punto il maestro è morto" - I was fortunate to see the original programme in the stairs of La Scala only a few months back ).

In the end Turandot discovers love and when she discovers the Prince's name she procclaims to the world that his name is 'Love' thus saving him from death. In the great performance in the Theater of Herod Atticus the director understood and tried to honour the Master's legacy....Turandot after procclaiming the PRince's name removes her wig thus revealing her true hair, silver as that of a very old woman. Turandot dies after being relieved of the pain of her defiance of love, she finds love and dies because so many years have passed since her youth. A trully magnificent performance and what a setting for that performance to be delivered.