(Puccini)
Act II
Relayed from The Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden
THE last of Puccini's
J- Operas, left unfinished at his death, was completed by Alfano, and the work w a triumphantly produced at Milan in 1926. More than in any of his other operas he introduced
' local colour ' in the music, incorporating a number of actual Chinese tunes.
Turandot, a very beautiful Chinese Princess, has sworn to revenge upon the whole race of men an injury once done to an ancestress. Every suitor for her hand is asked three enigmas and if he fails to answer all three correctly, is put to death. When the opera opens, many have already suffered the penalty, and in the first scene of the second Act, three Ministers of State, weary of all this bloodshed, pray their gods that this curse may be taken from the land. In the second scene, the populace gathers to hear the enigmas put to an unknown Prince, who is the latest suitor. The conditions of the contest are read out by a Mandarin, and then Turandot herself warns the Prince of his danger. One by one he successfully answers the three enigmas, but Turandot, recoiling from him, begs of her father, the Emperor, not to give him her hand. The Prince, enraged by her treatment, propounds an enigma in his turn, 'Tell'me my name before dawn,' he asks her, ' and thou shalt have my life as forfeit.'