Original name: Turandot
Libretto: Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni After the homonym story by Carlo Gozzi

Stage Director: Eugen Platon Artist al Poporului
Set Designer: Alexandr Ocuni (Russia)
Costume Designer: Alexandr Ocuni (Russia)
Music Director: Albert Mocealov Artist Emerit al RSSM
Chief Choirmaster: Ion Bratescu

World Premiere: 25 april 1926, at La Scala Theatre, Milano.
Premiere in Chisinau: 29 april 1979, at Moldovan State Opera and Ballet Theatre „A.S.Pushkin”.
Premiere of the last version: 25 december 1984, at Moldovan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre „A.S.Pushkin”.

Cast

10.09.2014

Princess Turandot - Olga Perrier, France

Imperator of China - Vladimir Zaklikovski, Artist al Poporului

Timur - Valeriu Cojocaru, Artist al Poporului

Calaff - Giorgi Meladze, Spain

Liu - Elena Gherman, Artist al Poporului

Ping - Iurie Gasca, Artist Emerit

Pong - Vasile Micusha, Maestru în Artă

Pang - Nicolae Vascautsan

Mandarin - Boris Materinco, Artist Emerit

The executioner - Boris Materinco, Artist Emerit

Conductor - Nicolae Dohotaru, Artist al Poporului

Stage Director - coordinator of performance - Mihai Timofti, Maestru în Artă

„Puccini gives the music from his soul.

The composer found himself in it with

all the aspirations of art and creative and,

listening to sounds of her cries of pain,

hope and triumphof human being”.

Arturo Toscanini

The history of creation

The idea of creating a work based on Carlo Gozzi's play has been proposed to Giacomo Puccini by his librettist Giuseppe Adami. Puccini being interested in began imediatly rush after the Chinese folk music also after descriptions and drawings of ancient Asian musical instruments whose stamp is specifically studied for a long time in order to take certain characteristic sounds of the Orient. The exotic theme for Puccini is not only the pretext to express his thoughts on a plan somewhat more philosophical and more general but with the old reliance on the facts of real life. Although it has brutal episodes, its realism is instinctively protecting from everything that is dark and cloudy.

The action takes place in Beijing in time of folktales

ACT ONE

Peking, legendary times.

In a quarter swarming with people near the Forbidden City, a Mandarin reads an edict: any prince seeking to marry Princess Turandot must answer three riddles - and if he fails, he will die. Her latest suitor, the Prince of Persia, is to be executed at the rise of the moon. Bloodthirsty citizens urge the executioner on, and in the tumult a slave girl, Liu, calls out for help when her aged master is pushed to the ground. A handsome youth recognizes him as his long-lost father, Timur, vanquished king of Tartary. When the old man tells his son, Prince Calaf, that only Liu has remained faithful to him, the youth asks her why. She replies it is because once, long ago, Calaf smiled on her. The mob again cries for blood, but the moon emerges, and all fall into sudden, fearful silence. The doomed suitor passes on the way to execution, moving the onlookers to call upon Turandot to spare his life. Turandot appears and, with a contemptuous gesture, bids the execution proceed. The crowd hears a death cry in the distance. Calaf, smitten with the princess' beauty, determines to win her as his bride, striding to the gong that proclaims the arrival of a new suitor. Turandot's ministers Ping, Pang and Pong try to discourage the youth, their warnings supplemented by the entreaties of Timur and the tearful Liu. Despite their pleas, Calaf strikes the fatal gong and calls out Turandot's name.

ACT TWO

In their quarters, Ping, Pang and Pong lament Turandot's bloody reign, praying that love will conquer her icy heart so peace can return. As the populace gathers to hear Turandot question the new challenger, the ministers are called back to harsh reality.

The aged Emperor Altoum, seated on a high throne in the Imperial Palace, asks Calaf to give up his quest, but in vain. Turandot enters and tells the story of her ancestor Princess Lou-Ling, brutally slain by a conquering prince; in revenge Turandot has turned against all men, determining that none shall ever possess her. She poses her first question: what is born each night and dies each dawn? "Hope," Calaf answers correctly. Unnerved, Turandot continues: what flickers red and warm like a flame, yet is not fire? "Blood," replies Calaf after a moment's pause. Shaken, Turandot delivers her third riddle: what is like ice but burns? A tense silence prevails until Calaf triumphantly cries "Turandot!" While the crowd gives thanks, the princess begs her father not to abandon her to a stranger, but to no avail. Calaf generously offers Turandot a riddle of his own: if she can learn his name by dawn, he will forfeit his life.

ACT THREE

In a palace garden, Calaf hears a proclamation: on pain of death, no one in Peking shall sleep until Turandot learns the stranger's name. The prince muses on his impending joy; but Ping, Pang and Pong try unsuccessfully to bribe him to withdraw. As the fearful mob threatens Calaf with drawn daggers to learn his name, soldiers drag in Liu and Timur. Horrified, Calaf tries to convince the mob that neither knows his secret. When Turandot appears, commanding the dazed Timur to speak, Liu cries out that she alone knows the stranger's identity. Though tortured, she remains silent. Impressed by such endurance, Turandot asks Liu's secret; "Love," the girl replies. When the princess signals the soldiers to intensify the torture, Liu snatches a dagger from one of them and kills herself. The grieving Timur and the crowd follow her body as it is carried away. Turandot remains alone to confront Calaf, who at length takes her in his arms, forcing her to kiss him. Knowing physical passion for the first time, Turandot weeps. The prince, now sure of his victory, tells her his name.

As the people hail the emperor, Turandot approaches his throne, announcing that the stranger's name is - Love.