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Princess Turandot - soprano The Emperor Altoum, her father - tenor Timur, the deposed King of Tartary - bass The Unknown Prince (Calàf), his son - tenor Liù, a slave girl - soprano Ping, Lord Chancellor - baritone Pang, Majordomo - tenor Pong, Head chef of the Imperial Kitchen - tenor A Mandarin - baritone The Prince of Persia - tenor The Executioner (Pu-Tin-Pao) - silent Imperial guards, the executioner's men, boys, priests, mandarins, dignitaries, eight wise men,Turandot's handmaids, soldiers, standard-bearers, musicians, ghosts of suitors, crowd The walls of the great Violet City: (The Imperial City. Massive ramparts form a semi-circle that enclose most of the scene. They are interrupted only at the right by a great loggia, covered with carvings and reliefs of monsters, unicorns, and phoenixes, its columns resting on the backs of gigantic turtles. At the foot of this loggia, there is a huge bronze gong, held up by two arches. On the ramparts are set some stakes, which bear the skulls of the executed. At left and in the back, three enormous gates open in the walls. When the curtain rises, the sunset has reached its most colourful point. Peking, which we see in the distance, is all gleaming and golden. The palace yard is filled with a picturesque Chinese crowd, which is listening to the words of a Mandarin. From the top of the rampart, where red and black Tartars stand guard, he is reading a tragic decree.) MANDARIN People of Peking! This is the law: Turandot, the Pure, will be the bride of the man, of royal blood, who solves the three enigmas that she will ask him. But whoever faces the trial and is defeated, must bow to the axe his haughty head! THE CROWD Ah! Ah! MANDARIN The Prince of Persia had Fate against him: when the moon rises, at the executioner’s hand he must die! THE CROWD He must die! Yes, die! We want the executioner! Quickly, quickly! Death! Death! The punishment! If you don’t appear, we’ll waken you, Pu-Tin-Pao! Pu-Tin-Pao! To the palace! To the palace! GUARDS (thrust back the crowd. In the mêlée many people fall.) Stand back, dog! THE CROWD Ah, cruel ones! Stop, by Heaven! GUARDS Stand back, dogs! THE CROWD Oh, my mother! Ah, my babies! Stop, cruel ones! Be human! Don’t hurt us! LIÙ This old man has fallen! Who can help me lift him up? This old man has fallen! Have pity! pity! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE (hurries over. He recognises, with a cry, his father.) Father! My father! Oh, father, yes, I’ve found you! Look at me! It’s not a dream! GUARDS Stand back! LIÙ My lord! THE CROWD Why are you striking us? Alas! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Father! Listen to me! Father! It’s I! And may my grief itself be blessed, for this joy given us by a pitying God. TIMUR Oh my son! You! Alive? THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Silence! The usurper of your crown seeks me and pursues you! There’s no hiding-place for us in the world, father! TIMUR I sought you, my son, and I thought you were dead! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE I wept for you, father; now I kiss these sainted hands!... TIMUR Oh, my son, found again! THE CROWD Here are the executioner’s men! To the death! TIMUR When the battle was lost, an old King without realm, fleeing, I heard a voice saying to me: “Come with me, I’ll be your guide...” It was Liù! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Bless her! TIMUR When I fell exhausted, she would dry my tears, and she begged for me! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Liù, who are you? LIÙ I’m nothing... A slave, my lord. THE CROWD (within) Hone the blade! Hone the blade! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Why did you share such anguish? LIÙ Because, one day...in the palace, you smiled at me. (A group of the executioner’s men comes in, preceded by the bearers of the hone to sharpen the executioner’s great scimitar.) THE CROWD Grind the whetstone! Grind it! etc. EXECUTIONER’S MEN Oil it, sharpen it, let the blade gleam, spatter fire and blood! Work is never dull for us where Turandot reigns! THE CROWD Where Turandot reigns! Sweet lovers, come forward! Come! EXECUTIONER’S MEN With our hooks and our knives, we’re ready to embroider your skins! THE CROWD Whoever strikes that gong will see her appear! White as jade, cold as that sword is the beautiful Turandot! EXECUTIONER’S MEN When the gong clangs, the executioner is happy! THE CROWD Love is in vain if Luck isn’t there! CROWD and MEN The enigmas are three; death is one! When the gong clang’s, etc. (As the executioner’s men go off to take him the sharpened sword, the crowd looks at the sky that has gradually grown dark.) THE CROWD Why does the moon delay? Wan face! Show yourself in the sky! Quickly! Come! Rise! Oh, lopped-off head! Oh, mean one! Come! Bloodless, taciturn! Pale lover of the dead! How the cemeteries await your funeral light! There’s a gleam over there!... Come quickly, etc. Over there a glimmer is spreading out in the sky its deathly light! Pu-Tin-Pao! The moon has risen! etc. BOYS There, on the Eastern mountains, the stork sang. But April blossomed no more, and the snow didn’t thaw. From the desert to the sea, can’t you hear a thousand voices sighing: “Princess, come down to me! All will blossom again, all will be resplendent! Ah!...” (A group of people come in, leading the young Prince of Persia to the scaffold. At the sight of the pale, dazed young victim, the crowd’s ferocity is changed into pity.) THE CROWD O the youth! Mercy! Mercy! How steady is his step! How sweet is his face! Ecstasy is in his eyes! Joy is in his eyes! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Ah, mercy on him! THE CROWD Have pity on him! Pity! Princess! Mercy! Pity! etc. UNKNOWN PRINCE Let me see you, and curse you! Cruel one! THE CROWD Princess, have pity on him! etc. (The people are facing the balcony where Turandot will appear. She comes forth, like a vision. A moonbeam lights her form. The crowd prostrates itself. Only the Prince of Persia, the Unknown Prince and the executioner remain standing. Turandot makes a decisive, imperious gesture: the death-sentence. The cortège moves off.) Princess! Have pity on him! Have mercy! etc. THE UNKNOWN PRINCE (blinded by this vision of Turandot) O divine beauty, o marvel, o dream! (The cortège has gone out.) WHITE PRIESTS O great Kouang-tze! May the dying man’s spirit come to you! (Now in the semi-darkness of the square only the Prince, Timur, and Liù are left. The father in anguish goes over to his son, shakes him, calling him back to himself). TIMUR My son, what are you doing? THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Can’t you feel it? Her perfume is in the air! It’s in my spirit! TIMUR You’re lost! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE O divine beauty, o marvel! I’m suffering, father, suffering! TIMUR No! No! Let me clasp you! Liù, you speak to him! There’s no safety here! Take his hand in your hand! LIÙ My lord, let’s go...far away! TIMUR Life is awaiting us there! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE This is Life, father! TIMUR Life is awaiting us there! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE I’m suffering, father, suffering! TIMUR There’s no safety here! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Life is here, father! Turandot! Turandot! Turandot! THE PRINCE OF PERSIA (within) Turandot! THE CROWD Ah! TIMUR Do you want to die thus? THE UNKNOWN PRINCE To conquer, father, in her beauty! TIMUR Do you want to end thus? THE UNKNOWN PRINCE To conquer, gloriously, in her beauty! (He rushes towards the gong. But suddenly three mysterious figures set themselves between him and the luminous dusk. These are Ping, Pang, and Pong, the emperor’s three ministers: the Grand Chancellor, the Grand Purveyor, and the Grand Cook. The Unknown Prince steps back.) THE MINISTERS Wait! What are you doing? Stop! Who are you? What are you doing? What do you want? Go away! Go! This is the door to the great butcher’s shop! Madman, go away! They garrotte you here! They impale you! Cut your throat! Skin you alive! They knife you and pollard you! Saw you up and disembowel you! Quickly, hastily, go back to your country and look for a door-post to break your head on! But here, no! Not here! Madman, go away! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Let me by! PONG Here the graveyards are full! PANG Our local madmen are quite enough! PING We don’t want any more foreign madmen! PONG and PANG Run off, or else your funeral will be prepared for you! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Let me by! PONG and PANG For a Princess! Pooh! PONG What’s that? PANG A female with a crown on her head! PONG And a cloak with some fringe! PING But if you strip her naked – PONG She’s flesh! PANG She’s raw flesh! THE MINISTERS It’s inedible stuff! Ha! ha! ha! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Let me by! PING Give up woman! Or else take a hundred wives, after all the most sublime Turandot in the world has a face, two arms and two legs, yes, lovely, imperial, yes, yes, lovely, but still only legs! With a hundred wives, you fool, you’ll have a surplus of legs! Two hundred arms, and a hundred soft bosoms scattered in a hundred beds! THE MINISTERS In a hundred beds! Ha! ha! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Let me by! THE MINISTERS Madman, go away! Go! etc. (A group of handmaidens comes out of the balustrade of the loggia; they hold out their hands.) THE HANDMAIDENS Hola, silence! Who’s talking down there? Silence! This is the sweet hour for sleeping! Sleep is grazing her eyes! The darkness breathes forth her fragrance! THE MINISTERS Go away, chattering females! (The maidens withdraw.) Watch out for the gong! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE The darkness breathes forth her fragrance! THE MINISTERS Look at him, Pong! Look at him, Ping! Look at him, Pang! He’s gone deaf! He’s dazed! He’s bedazzled! TIMUR He’s not listening to them, alas! THE MINISTERS Come! Let’s all three speak to him! A night without a bit of light... ...a chimney’s blackened throat... are still clearer than Turandot’s enigmas! Iron bronze, walls, rock... ...your obstinate hard head... are less hard than Turandot’s enigmas! So then, go! Bid us all goodbye! Scale the mountains, ford the streams! And stay well away from Turandot’s enigmas! (The Prince barely has the strength to react. Now suddenly vague calls, not voices but the shadows of voices, fill the darkness below the ramparts. Here and there, at first barely perceptible, then gradually more livid and phosphorescent, the phantoms appear, They are those who loved Turandot and, failing in the test, have lost their lives.) THE PHANTOMS Don’t hesitate! If you call, she’ll appear – she who makes us dream, though we are dead! Make her speak! Let us hear her! I love her! I love her! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE No! I, only I love her! THE MINISTERS You love her? What? who? Turandot? Ha, ha, ha! PONG O mad boy! PANG Turandot doesn’t exist! PING Only the Nothingness exists, in which you annihilate yourself!... PONG and PANG Turandot doesn’t exist! PING Turandot! Like all those blockheads who went before you! Man! God! The Ego! Peoples! Kings...Pu-Tin-Pao... THE MINISTERS Only the Tao exists! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE I want the triumph! I want love! (He starts to throw himself on the gong, but the executioner appears high on the bastion with the head of the Prince of Persia.) THE MINISTERS Fool! There’s love! That’s how the moon will kiss your face! TIMUR Oh, son, do you want me then to drag along through the world my tortured old age, all alone? Help! Isn’t there any human voice that can move your fierce heart? LIÙ (weeping, approaches the Prince) My lord, listen, ah! listen! Liù can bear it no more! My heart is breaking! Alas, how long have I travelled with your name in my soul, your name on my lips! But if your Fate is decided tomorrow we’ll die on the road to exile! He will lose his son... And I...the shadow of a smile! Liù can bear it no more! Ah, have pity! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Don’t weep, Liù If one far-off day, I smiled at you, then for that smile, my sweet girl, listen to me: your master tomorrow will be perhaps alone in the world... Don’t leave him! Take him away with you! LIÙ We’ll die on the road to exile! TIMUR We’ll die! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Soften for him the road to exile! O my poor Liù, this, this is what he who smiles no more asks of your unfailing heart... he who smiles no more! TIMUR Ah, for the last time! LIÙ Overcome this horrible spell! THE MINISTERS Life is so beautiful! TIMUR Have pity on me! LIÙ Have pity on Liù Pity, lord! THE MINISTERS Don’t destroy yourself like this! Seize him, carry him away! Restrain that raging madman! You are mad! Life is beautiful! TIMUR Have pity, have pity on me! I can’t tear myself from you! I don’t want to tear myself from you! Pity! I throw myself at your feet, moaning! Have pity! Don’t make me die! LIÙ Pity, lord! Lord, have pity on Liù! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE I’m the one who asks for pity! I can’t listen to anyone any more! I see her radiant face! I see her! She calls me! She is there! I ask your pardon, as one who smiles no more! PING Come, a last effort: Let’s carry him away! THE MINISTERS Let’s carry him away! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Leave me alone! I’ve suffered too much! Glory awaits me there! No human strength exists that can restrain! I’m following my destiny! I’m in a fever, a delirium! My senses are all fierce torture! Every fibre of my soul has a voice that shouts: Turandot! Turandot! Turandot! TIMUR You’re treading on a poor heart that bleeds for you in vain! Nobody has ever won, nobody! The sword has struck them all! I throw myself at your feet! Don’t put me to death! Death! Death! LIÙ Ah, have pity, pity on us! As if your torment weren’t enough, lord, we are lost! With you! Let us flee, lord, flee! Death! Death! Death! THE MINISTERS The face you see is an illusion! The light that shines is fatal! You’re gambling your own destruction! You’re gambling your head! Death! The executioner’s shadow is there! You’re hastening to your ruin! Don’t risk your life! Death! Death! Death! CHORUS We’re already digging your grave, you who would challenge love! In the darkness, alas, your destiny is written! Ah! (As he invokes Turandot, the Unknown Prince rushes to the gong, seizes the hammer, and strikes it three times.) THE MINISTERS Well, let him go! There’s no use shouting in Sanskrit, Chinese, or Mongolian! When the gong clangs, Death is happy! Ha, ha, ha! (They run away, snickering.) Scene One A pavilion (It is formed by a huge tent, all strangely decorated with symbolic and fantastic Chinese figures. There are three openings: in the centre and at the sides. Ping appears at the centre. Turning first to the right, then to the left, he calls his companions. They are followed by three servants, who are carrying a red lantern, a green lantern, and a yellow lantern, which they then set on a low table, surrounded by three stools. The servants then retire to the background, where they remain, huddled on the ground.) PING Hola, Pang! Hola, Pong! Since the fatal gong is waking the Palace and walking city, let’s be ready for any event: if the stranger wins, for the wedding; and if he loses, for the burial. PONG I’ll prepare the wedding! PANG And I, the funeral! PONG The red, holiday lanterns! PANG The white, mourning lanterns! PANG and PONG Incense and sacrifices... PONG Gilded coins of paper... PANG Tea, sugar, nutmeg! PONG The fine scarlet palanquin! PANG The great, well-made bier! PONG The singing priests... PANG The moaning priests... PONG and PANG And all the rest, as the ceremony requires... in its infinity of details! PING O China, o China, who now starts and leaps restlessly, how happily you used to sleep filled with your seventy thousand centuries! THE MINISTERS Everything was going along according to the world’s ancient law. Then Turandot was born... PING And for years now our holidays have become joys of this order: PONG ...three strokes of the gong, PANG ...three riddles, PING ...and off with the heads! PONG and off with the heads! PANG The Year of the Mouse there were six. PONG The year of the Dog, eight. THE MINISTERS And during the current year, the terrible Year of the Tiger, we’ve reached thirteen already, counting the one about to go! What work! What boredom! What have we become? We’re the executioner’s Ministers! PING I have a house in Honan with a little blue lake all surrounded with bamboo. And here I am, wasting my life, wearing out my brain over the sacred books... When I could go back there to my little blue lake all surrounded with bamboo! PONG Go back there! I have forests, near Tsaing, than which none are lovelier, but their shade is not for me. I have forests than which none are lovelier! PANG To go back there! I have a garden near Kiù, that I left to come here, that I’ll never see again! THE MINISTERS And here we are, wearing out our brains over the sacred books! PONG And I could go back to Tsaing... PING And I could go back there... PANG And I could go back to Kiù... PING ...to enjoy my blue lake... PONG Tsaing... PANG Kiù... PING Honan... all surrounded with bamboo! PONG ...and I could go back to Tsaing! PANG ...and I could go back to Kiù! THE MINISTERS O world, filled with mad lovers! We have seen the suitors arriving! Oh, so many! So many! We’ve seen all those suitors arriving! O world, filled with mad lovers! PING Do you remember the regal Prince of Samakand? He made his application, and how joyfully she sent him the executioner! THE CHORUS Oil and sharpen the blade till it shines and splatters fire and blood! PONG And the bejewelled Indian Sagarika, with ear-rings like little bells? He sought love, and was beheaded! PANG And the Burmese? PONG And the Prince of the Kirkhiz? THE MINISTERS Killed! Killed! PING And the Tartar whose bow was six cubits high! who wore rich skins? THE CHORUS Oil and sharpen, etc. PONG and PANG Executed! PING Beheaded... THE CHORUS Where Turandot reigns, work never is lacking! THE MINISTERS Kill...execute... Slaughter... Farewell to love! Farewell to our race! Farewell, divine lineage! And China comes to an end! But should the night of surrender come... PONG I will shake up for her the soft feathers! PANG I want to perfume her chamber! PING I will lead the bridal pair, holding the lamp! THE MINISTERS Then the three of us in the garden will sing of love until morning... like this...like this: No longer is there in China, luckily for us, a woman who refuses love! There was only one, and she who was ice is now flame and ardour! Princess, your empire extends from the Tse-Kiang to the immense Yangtze! PING But there, within the filmy hangings, is a husband who reigns over you! THE MINISTERS You smell already the aroma of kisses, already you’re a woman, you’re filled with languor! Everything whispers in the garden, and golden bells tinkle... They whisper amorous words, as the flowers are pearled with dew! Glory to the lovely, exposed body that now knows the mystery it ignored! Glory to their ecstasy and to Love, which has conquered and has given peace to China again! PING We’re dreaming, while the palace is already swarming with lanterns, servants and soldiers! You hear the great drum of the green temple! Already the infinite clogs of Peking are clattering! PONG You hear the trumpets! Peace, indeed! PANG The ceremony is beginning! THE MINISTERS Let’s go and enjoy this umpteenth torture! Scene Two A vast square inside the Palace walls (At the centre there is a great marble stairs, whose summit is lost among lacy arches. There are three broad landings. Numerous servants set vari-coloured lanterns everywhere. Gradually the crowd invades the square. The mandarins arrive, dressed in blue and gold. The Eight Sages go by, tall and pompous. They are enormous old men, almost the same size. Their gestures are slow and simultaneous. Each is carrying three sealed silk scrolls in his hand. These scrolls contain the answers to Turandot’s enigmas.) THE CROWD Grave, enormous, and imposing, with the sealed mystery of the enigmas, the Sages already come forward. Here’s Ping. Here’s Pong. Here’s Pang. (Among the clouds of incense appear the white and yellow banners of the Emperor. Then at the top of the stairs, seated on a vast ivory throne, the Emperor Altoum is seen. He is very old, all white, venerable. He appears among the clouds like a god.) Ten thousand years’ life our Emperor! Glory to you! (The crowd prostrates itself, face on the ground, in attitudes of great respect. The square is bathed in a vivid red light. The unknown Prince is at the foot of the stair. Timur and Liù, at left, are lost in the crowd.) THE EMPEROR A ghastly oath forces me to keep faith with the horrid pact. And the holy sceptre I clasp is steeped in blood! Enough of this blood! Young man, go! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Son of Heaven, I ask to undergo the trial! THE EMPEROR Let me die without bearing the burden of your young life! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Son of Heaven! I ask to undergo the trial! THE EMPEROR Don’t fill with horror again the palace, the world! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Son of Heaven! I ask to undergo the trial! THE EMPEROR Stranger, intoxicated with death! So be it! Let your destiny be fulfilled! THE CROWD Ten thousand years to our Emperor! MANDARIN People of Peking! This is the law: Turandot; the pure, will be the bride of the man, of royal blood, who solves the enigmas she asks him. But whoever faces the trial and is defeated, must bow to the axe his haughty head! BOYS From the desert to the sea can’t you hear a thousand voices sigh: “Princess, come to me! And all will be radiant!” (The Mandarin withdraws. Turandot advances and stands before the throne. Beautiful and impassive, she looks at the Unknown Prince with icy eyes.) TURANDOT In this Palace, thousands of years ago, a desperate cry rang out. And that cry, after many generations, took shelter in my spirit! Princess Lo-u-Ling, sweet, serene ancestress, who ruled in your dark silence with pure joy, and challenged, sure and unyielding, the harsh mastery of others, today you live in me again! THE CROWD It was when the King of the Tartars unfurled his seven flags! TURANDOT Still in the time all can recall, there was alarm, terror, the rumble of arms! The Kingdom defeated! defeated! And Lo-u-ling, my ancestress, dragged off by a man, like you, like you, stranger, there in the horrid night, where her sweet voice was stilled! THE CROWD She’s slept for centuries in her huge tomb! TURANDOT O you princes, with your long caravans from every part of the world, who come her to try your fate, in you I avenge that purity, that cry, and that death! No one will ever posses me! The horror of her assassin is still vivid in my heart! No, no one will ever possess me! Ah, in me is reborn the pride of such purity! Stranger, do not tempt Fate! The enigmas are three, but death is one! THE UNKNONW PRINCE No, no! The enigmas are three, and life is one! THE CROWD Offer the supreme test to the foreign Prince, O Turandot! Turandot! (The trumpets blare. Silence. Turandot asks the first riddle.) TURANDOT Stranger, listen! “In the gloomy night an iridescent phantom flies. It spreads its wings and rises over infinite, black humanity! Everyone invokes it, everyone implores it! But the phantom disappears at dawn to be reborn in the heart! And every night it’s born and every day it dies! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Yes! It’s reborn! It’s reborn and, exulting, it carries me with it, Turandot; it is Hope! THE SAGES (open the first scroll) Hope! TURANDOT Yes! Hope which always deludes! “It flickers like flame, and is not flame! Sometimes it rages! It’s feverish, impetuous, burning! But idleness changes it to languor! If you’re defeated or lost, it grows cold! If you dream of winning, if flames! Its voice is faint, but you listen; it gleams as bright as the sunset!” THE EMPEROR Don’t destroy yourself, stranger! THE CROWD Your life is at stake! Speak! Don’t destroy yourself, stranger! Speak! LIÙ Your love is at stake! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Yes, Princess! It flames and languishes, too, if you look at me, in my veins: it is Blood! THE SAGES (open the second scroll) Blood! THE CROWD Courage, solver of enigmas! TURANDOT (points to the crowd, to the guards) Lash those wretches! (She comes down the stair. She bends over the Unknown Prince, who falls to his knees.) “Ice that sets you on fire and from your fire is more frosty! White and dark! If she sets you free, she makes you a slave! If she accepts you as a slave, she makes you a King!” Come, stranger! You’re pale with fright! And you know you are lost! Come, stranger, what is the frost that gives off fire? THE UNKNOWN PRINCE (leaps to his feet, exclaiming) My victory now has given you to me! My fire will thaw you: Turandot! THE SAGES (open the scroll) Turandot! THE CROWD Turandot! Glory, victor! May life smile on you! May love smile on you! Ten thousand years to our Emperor! The Light, the King of the world! TURANDOT Son of Heaven! August father! No! Don’t cast your daughter into the stranger’s arms! THE EMPEROR The oath is sacred! TURANDOT No, don’t say it! Your daughter is sacred! You can’t give me to him, to him like a slave, ah no! to die of shame! (to the Prince) Don’t look at me like that! You, who mock my pride! I shall not be yours! No, I will not! THE EMPEROR The oath is sacred! THE CROWD The oath is sacred! TURANDOT No, don’t look at me like that; I shall not be yours. THE CROWD He won, Princess! He offered his life for you! TURANDOT No one will ever possess me! THE CROWD You are the reward of his daring! He offered his life for you! The oath is sacred! TURANDOT Would you have me in your arms by force, reluctant and enraged? THE UNKNOWN PRINCE No, no, haughty Princess! I want you ardent with love! THE CROWD Bold, courageous man! Strong one! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE You asked me three riddles, and I solved all three! I will propose only one to you: You do not know my name! Tell me my name, tell me my name before dawn! And at dawn I will die! (Turandot, agreeing, nods.) THE EMPEROR May heaven will that as the sun rises you will be my son! THE CROWD We prostrate ourselves at your feet, The Light, the King of all the world! For your wisdom, for your goodness, we give ourselves to you, happy in our humility! My our love rise to you! Ten thousand years to our Emperor! To you, heir of Hien Wang, we cry: ten thousand year’s life to our great Emperor! Hold high, high, the banners! Glory to you! Glory to you! Scene One The garden of the Palace (At right a pavilion which is reached by five steps, beyond which are richly embroidered hangings. The pavilion is the entrance to one of the wings of the Palace, which contains the rooms of Turandot. It is night. From the remote distance come the voices of Heralds, who are going around the immense city, proclaiming the royal command. Resting on the steps is the Prince. In the great silence of the night, he listens to the cries, as if no longer in the real world.) HERALDS Turandot commands thus: “Tonight no one must sleep in Peking!” DISTANT VOICES No one must sleep! No one must sleep! HERALDS “Under the pain of death, the name of the Stranger must be revealed before morning!” DISTANT VOICES Under pain of death! HERALDS “Tonight no one must sleep in Peking!” DISTANT VOICES No one must sleep! No one must sleep! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE No one must sleep! No one must sleep... You, too, o Princess, in your cold room look at the stars, that tremble with love and with hope! But my mystery is shut within me; no one will know my name! No, I will say it on your mouth when the daylight shines! And my kiss will break the silence that makes you mine! WOMEN’S VOICES No one will know his name... And, alas, we must die! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Vanish, o night! Set, you stars! At dawn I will win! I will win! I will win! (Slipping through the shrubbery come the three Ministers, leading a small crowd that, gradually, becomes more numerous.) PING You who look at the stars, lower your eyes. PONG Our life is in your power! PANG Our life! PING Did you hear the proclamation? In the streets of Peking, at every door Death knocks and cries: his name! THE MINISTERS His name, or your blood! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE What do you want of me? PING, PANG and PONG You say what you want! Is it love you seek? Well: take it! (He thrusts forward, at the Prince’s feet, a group of girls, lovely and half-naked.) Look, they are beautiful in their shimmering veils! PONG and PANG Their lithe bodies... PING All ecstasy and promises of stupendous passions! WOMEN Ah, ah! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE No! No! PONG and PANG What do you want? Wealth? all these treasures are for you! (At a sign, porters bring in baskets, coffers, sacks filled with gold and jewels.) PING They shatter the dark night... PONG Blue fires! PING ...these gleaming gems! PANG Green splendours! PONG Pale hyacinths! PANG The red flames of the rubies! PING They are tear-drops of the stars! PONG and PANG Blue fires! Red flames! PING Take them! They’re all yours! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE No! No riches! No! THE MINISTERS Do you seek glory? We will have you flee... PONG and PANG ...and you’ll follow the stars afar towards fabulous empires! ALL Flee! Flee! Go, go far away! And we will all be saved! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Come, dawn! Dissolve this nightmare! PING Stranger, you don’t know what the Cruel One is capable of: you don’t know! THE MINISTERS You don’t know the horrible tortures China will invent if you stay and do not reveal you name! ALL The Sleepless One does not forgive! We are lost! It will be a horrible torture! The sharp irons! The spiky wheels! The hot grip of the pincers! Death, little by little! Don’t make us die! etc. THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Your prayers are in vain! Your threats are in vain! If the world should collapse, I want Turandot! THE CROWD You won’t have her. No! You will die before we do! A curse on you! Speak! The name! The name! (A group of guards bring in old Timur and Liù, tattered, bruised, broken, and bleeding.) GUARDS Here’s the name! It’s here! It’s here! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE They don’t know it! They don’t know my name!... PING It’s the old man and the girl who were talking to you last night! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Let them go! PING They know the secret! Where did you catch them? GUARDS As they were wandering about there, near the walls! MINISTERS and CROWD Princess! Princess! (Turandot appears at the edge of the pavilion. All prostrate themselves on the ground, except Ping, who comes forward with extreme humility and speaks.) PING Divine Princess! The stranger’s name is closed within these silent mouths. But we have instruments to wrench out those teeth. and we have pincers to drag out that name! TURANDOT You are pale, stranger! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Your fear sees the pallor of dawn on my face! They don’t know me! TURANDOT We shall see! Come, speak, old man! I want him to speak! The name! LIÙ The name you seek – only I know. THE CROWD Our lives are saved; the nightmare has vanished! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE You know nothing, slave! LIÙ I know his name... My supreme pleasure is to keep it secret and to have it for myself alone! THE CROWD Have her bound and tortured! Until she speaks! Until she dies! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE (sets himself in front of Liù to protect her) You will pay for her tears! You will pay for her torments! TURANDOT Seize him! LIÙ Lord, I won’t speak! (The Prince is seized by the soldiers and shackled, Liù seized by her torturers, has fallen on her knees to the ground.) PING His name! LIÙ No! PING His name! LIÙ Your servant asks your pardon, but she cannot obey! (A soldier twists her wrists.) Ah! TIMUR Why are you crying? THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Let her go! LIÙ No...no...I’m not crying now! They aren’t hurting me! No, nobody’s touching me. (to the guards) Harder... but shut my mouth so he can’t hear me! I can’t stand it any longer! THE CROWD Speak! His name! TURANDOT Let her go! Speak! (Liù is freed.) LIÙ I’d rather die! TURANDOT Who gave your heart such strength? LIÙ Love, Princess! TURANDOT Love? LIÙ Such love, secret and unconfessed, so great that these torments are sweet for me, because I make a gift of them for my lord... because, keeping silent, I give him your love... I give you him, Princess, and I lose everything! Even my impossible hope!... Bind me! Torture me! Give me torments and pain! Ah! the supreme gift of my love! TURANDOT Wrest the secret from her! PING Call Pu-Tin-Pao! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE No, curse you! Curse you! THE CROWD The executioner! PING Put her to the torture! THE CROWD Torture! Yes, the executioner! Make her speak! LIÙ I can bear it no longer! I’m afraid of myself! Let me by! THE CROWD Speak, speak! LIÙ Yes, Princess, listen to me! You, who are enclosed in ice, conquered by such flame, you will love him, too! Before the dawn, I will wearily close my eyes, so he can win again... And I’ll never see him more! (Suddenly she seizes a dagger from a soldier and stabs herself to death. She casts her dazed eyes around, looks at the Prince, who is still held by the Guards. She stumbles over to him and falls headlong at his feet, dead.) THE CROWD Ah, speak! Speak! His name! His name! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Ah! You are dead, O my poor little Liù... (A great silence falls, filled with terror. Turandot stares at Liù, lying on the ground; then with an enraged gesture she seizes a lash from one of the executioner’s men beside her and whips the face of the soldier who allowed Liù to seize his dagger. The Prince is freed. Then old Timur, as if out of his mind, rises. He goes over to the little dead body, kneels down and speaks.) TIMUR Liù...Liù...get up! It’s the bright hour for all awakening! It’s the dawn, my Liù.. Open your eyes, my dove! (Everyone feels pity and remorse. An expression of torment passes over Turandot’s face. Ping notices it, and goes roughly towards the old man to drive him away. But as he nears Timur, his natural cruelty is overcome, and the usual hardness of his voice is softened.) PING Get up, old man! She’s dead! TIMUR Ah! horrible crime! We will all pay for it! The offended spirit will take revenge! (Then a superstitious terror seizes the crowd: the fear that the dead girl will become an evil spirit, because she was the victim of injustice, and that she will change, as the popular belief has it, into a vampire. As two handmaidens cover Turandot’s face with a white veil embroidered in silver, the crowd supplicates.) THE CROWD Grieving shade, don’t harm us! Scornful shade, forgive us! (With religious pity, the little body is raised up amidst the profound respect of the crowd. The old man comes over, tenderly takes the dead girl’s hand and walks along beside her.) TIMUR Liù...goodness! Liù...sweetness! Ah! we are walking together again, This, your hand in mine! I know well where you’re going. And I will follow you to rest near you in the night that has no morning. PING Ah! for the first time I don’t snicker at seeing Death! PONG That old machine my heart, has wakened inside me and is tormenting me! PANG That dead child weighs on my heart like a stone! (As the cortège goes off, the crowd speaks.) THE CROWD Liù...goodness...forgive! Liù...Sweetness, sleep! Forget! Liù...Poetic spirit! (All have left. Only the Prince and Turandot remain.) THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Princess of death! Princess of ice! Come down to earth from your tragic heaven! Ah! Raise that veil... Look...look, cruel one, at that purest blood that was shed for you! (He rushes to her and tears away her veil.) TURANDOT How do you dare, stranger! I am not human... I am the daughter of heaven... free and pure. You clasp my cold veil, but my spirit is there, aloft! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Your spirit is on high! But your body is near. With burning hands I’ll clasp the gold border of your starry cloak... My trembling mouth will be pressed on yours... TURANDOT Do not profane me! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Ah! To feel you alive! TURANDOT Stand back! Do not profane me! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Your iciness is a lie! TURANDOT No, no one will ever possess me! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE I want you to be mine! TURANDOT My ancestress’s torment will not be repeated! Ah, no! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE I want you to be mine! TURANDOT Touch me not, it is a sacrilege! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE No, your kiss gives me eternity! TURANDOT Sacrilege! (And as he speaks, the Unknown Prince, filled with the sense of his right and with his passion, seizes Turandot in his arms and kisses her in a frenzy. Carried away, Turandot has no more resistance, no more strength, no more will power. This unbelievable contact has transfigured her. In a pleading, almost childish voice, she now murmurs:) What has become of me? I’m lost! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE My flower! Oh, my morning flower! My flower, I breathe you in! Your lily breasts, ah! they tremble against my chest! Already I feel you faint with sweetness, all white in your silver cloak! VOICES WITHIN Ah! Ah! TURANDOT How did you win? THE UNKNOWN PRINCE You weep? TURANDOT It’s the dawn! Dawn! Turandot’s sun has set! VOICES WITHIN Dawn! Light and Life! Princess, all is pure! All is holy! What sweetness in your weeping! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE It’s dawn! The dawn! And Love is born with the sun! TURANDOT No one must see me... My glory is ended! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE No! It has begun! TURANDOT I am ashamed! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE Miracle! Your glory is radiant in the magic of a first kiss, of your first tears. TURANDOT My first tears...ah! My first tears, yes, stranger, when you arrived, with anguish I felt the fatal shudder of this great illness. How many I’ve seen die for me! And I scorned them; but you, I feared! In your eyes there was the light of heroes! In your eyes there was haughty certainty... And for that I hated you... And I loved you for that, tormented and torn between two equal fears: to defeat you or be defeated... And I am defeated... Ah! Defeated, not so much by the trial as by his fever that comes to me from you! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE You’re mine! Mine! TURANDOT This, this is what you sought. Now you know. Don’t seek a greater victory... go, stranger... with your mystery! THE UNKNOWN PRINCE My mystery? I no longer have one! You are mine! You who tremble if I touch you! You who pale when I kiss you, can destroy me if you will. My name and my life I give you together. I am Calaf, son of Timur! TURANDOT I know your name! CALAF My glory is your embrace! TURANDOT Listen! The trumpets blare! CALAF My life is your kiss! TURANDOT Lo, the hour has come! It’s the hour of the trial! CALAF I do not fear it! TURANDOT Ah, Calaf! come with me before the people! CALAF You have won! Scene Two Outside the Imperial Palace (It is all white, of carved marble, over which the rosy reflections of dawn play like blooming flowers. At the top of a high stairway, in the centre of the scene, the Emperor is surrounded by his court, dignitaries, sages, and soldiers. At either side of the square, in a vast semi-circle, is the enormous, acclaiming crowd.) THE CROWD Ten thousand years to our Emperor! (The three Ministers spread a golden mantle on the ground as Turandot goes up the stairs. Suddenly there is silence.) TURANDOT August father...I know the name of the stranger! His name is...Love! (Calaf rushes up the steps. The two lovers are locked in an embrace.) THE CROWD Love! O Sun! Life! Eternity! Love is the light of the world! Our infinite happiness laughs and sings in the Sun! Glory to you! Glory to you! END |
| libretto by William Weaver |