Turandot | |
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Opera by Giacomo Puccini | |
Librettist | |
Language | Italian |
Based on | Carlo Gozzi's play Turandot |
Premiere | 25 April 1926 Teatro alla Scala, Milan |
Turandot (Italian pronunciation: [turanˈdo];[1] Italian pronunciation: [turanˈdɔt];[2][3] see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. Puccini left the opera unfinished at the time of his death in 1924; it premiered in 1926 after the music was posthumously completed by Franco Alfano.
The opera is set in China and follows the Prince Calaf, who falls in love with the cold Princess Turandot.[4] In order to win her hand in marriage, a suitor must solve three riddles, with a wrong answer resulting in his execution. Calaf passes the test, but Turandot refuses to marry him. He offers her a way out: if she is able to guess his name before dawn the next day, he will accept death.