The setting is in Beijing. Lost in a war, Timur, the deposed King of Tartary is escaping from his former country with a female slave, Liu. While on the run, Timur coincidentally meets his son, Calaf. In a castle somewhere in the city, Princess Turandot, the princess of China, comes out and shows up in front of the people of Beijing. Calaf sees her and falls in love with her at first sight. As is the tradition with the princess’ other suitors from other countries, Calaf beats the gong to challenge Princess Turandot to ask him three questions. This challenge entails that if Calaf correctly answers all the questions the princess will agree to marry him, otherwise he will die from public execution. The princess gives him three questions. Calaf successfully answers the questions, but the princess is not happy because she does not want to belong to anybody. So as a return challenge, Calaf asks her to tell him his name before the sun rises. If she is successful she will not have to marry him and Calaf will die from public execution. In a hurry to know his name, Turandot catches Calaf’s father, Tatary, and his slave girl, Liu, to make them reveal his name. However, Liu kills herself in front of the princess to protect Calaf. Turandot finally opens her heart and says that Calaf’s name is “love”.
I love operas and I have greatly enjoyed the Marriage of Figaro, Aida, Madam Butterfly, Carmen, and Porgy and Bess. So when the chance to watch Turandot came up, I immediately grabbed it because I wanted to expand my list of watched operas. I got to go see the opera Turandot using an extremely affordable ticket called U-25 (Under the age of 25). An opera singer friend had told me about U-25 two months ago. This is a discount and promotional system where people under the age of 25 can buy a theater ticket at a discounted price. This system is quite common in Japanese theatres to encourage young people to watch operas. Happily, I was able to use this wonderful opportunity while still at 24! I only paid 3,000 yen to see Turandot, which meant a discount of 85% of the original price. Also, I was so lucky to get seated near the stage! This recent theater experience will definitely help my preparations before I start my musical writing program in NYU Tisch, on September.
For the first time in the theater history in Japan, two biggest theater companies in the country in Japan have joined forces to showcase two operas in an event called “Summer Festival Opera 2019-20 Japan ↔ Tokyo ↔ World”. Turandot is the featured opera in 2019, and The Mastersingers of Nuremberg composed by Wargner is the opera to watch for in 2020.
The show started at exactly 6:30 pm. It was full-packed and the feel in the theater was exciting and exhilarating! I was very impressed by the modern setting of the stage, which was illuminated by bright LED lights and brought to life by advanced technology. For instance, the castle in the center could appear and disappear by going up to the ceiling and going down to the floor; this happened many times. I really liked the modern stage but the more conservative opera fans in the audience were not equally impressed. At the end, during the curtain call, the stage manager received some booing. But I really thought that he did a good job and I showed my appreciation by joining in the applause.
The opera ran for two hours and fifty minutes and there was not a single second that I had felt bored. I enjoyed everything especially the music! Of all the songs in the opera, I liked the tenor aria “Nessun Dorma”, the most. Calaf sang this while he was waiting for the sunrise to come and after he had given Turandot the challenge. Many people in the world must have heard this song because it is totally iconic and will forever be a classic. Tenors should be very grateful to Puccini in writing this song because when they sing this their talent really shine so bright. With Nessun Dorma, Luciano Pavarotti’s voice can soar high up to the heavens and people who listen will hear angels and gasp in wonder! The song ended with the words “Vincero”, “Vincero” - “I will win”, “I will win” - on a very high and sustained note. On that note, on that word, Calaf poured all his heart into believing that his dream will come true. “Vincero” will definitely motivate me as I start my New York journey in two months! (Listen to “Nessun Dorma” by Luciano Pavarotti below.)
I am into the world of theaters right now! I think that the theater is the culmination of art because people can enjoy many aspects of live art such as music, dancing, singing, and acting. Hence, I am very honored to be part of the cycle 30 of the Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU Tisch where I can learn writing songs for theatres by collaborating with lyricists. The wonderful world of theater comes alive when artists from different fields and expertise come together for a particular vision. My program is all about that - collaboration! I can’t wait for September!