Nessun dorma (no one sleeps) is the piece of music that singlehandedly seduced me to the world of opera. I don't remember when I heard it first. But the swell of the music...ahhh! Turadot became the first opera CD I owned (although the first opera I listened to from beginning to end was La Traviata, and started my lifelong one way love affair with Placido Domingo...another story for another time), and I am the proud owner of 9 different versions of Nessun dorma (sadly, my student budget will not allow me to purchase more than one version of the full opera). Of course, I bought the version where Domingo sings Calaf, although I've had my eye on the version with Pavarotti, Sutherland and Caballe for months now, if it weren't so freaking expensive.

So last year, I broke down and finally spent 70 dollars to see the premiere of Turandot at the Met. I would have spent more, but no one wanted to sit with me in a box seat, so there. I waited three months, and I think I was not disappointed (although, I had a headache from earlier in the day that would not go away).

Call me a snob, I guess, but I have never bought a ticket for an opera that was not staged in the Metropolitan Opera House. I have officially designated it as one of my "happy places" in the city. When the starburst chandeliers start ascending to the ceiling to signal the beginning of a performance, I seem to forget that I have tests, papers, students, teachers, bills, and all the tedious minutiae of life.

The print above is by Rafal Olbinski, whose work I've seen prominently displayed in the Met Opera gift shop. Turandot is the daughter of the Emperor of China, who challenges her suitors to answer her three riddles (they are really ridiculous riddles too, I don't know why these suitors cannot muster half a brain among them to answer the riddles). Answer the riddles thrice, die only once, she says. If the riddles are unanswered, off with the suitor's head. Calaf, a prince who has lost his kingdom, has gone insane when he sees the beautiful Turandot (what explanation is there for him to abandon his poor, old and blind father?) and answers the challenge. He successfully answers the riddles, but now Turandot backs out on the deal. She would rather die than get married. Calaf tells her that if he can find out what his name by tomorrow, he will die. Turandot then proceeds to annoy the populo di Pechino by threatening them with dire suffering if the name of the prince is not found. Ergo, nessun dorma in Pechino.

Now Turandot's henchmen have found Calaf's father, Timur, and his slave girl Liu, who is secretly in love with Calaf. They torture Liu, who kills herself before she could reveal the name. As everyone on the stage leaves, Calaf goes and kisses Turandot (she gets a kiss for killing somebody??? WTH!) and SHE realizes that she's got a thing for him after all! So everyone is happy, except for the 12 suitors who died in the year of the tiger.

I tend to listen to the tenors very closely, much more so than the sopranos. Richard Margison was passable, his voice very similar to Domingo, but my benchmark for Calaf is the Italian tenor Franco Corelli. Now, I don't know as much about opera as I pretend I do, but something about Corelli's voice -- he has a voice that can be heard all the way in China if he performed in New York! It works well with the al'alba vincero attitude that Calaf should have.

Hei-Kyung Hong as Liu was the audience favorite, I believe. I have heard her sing as Violetta at Central Park, and she has a strong clear voice. This opera was the first time I heard Andrea Gruber sing, she didn't really move me (by the way, what's with all the white costumes? Chinese only wear white during funerals. I guess considering she has more than 20 dead suitors, maybe she can be excused.).

My favorite part, surprisingly, was the trio segment with the three courtiers, with the unfortunate names of Ping, Pong, and Pang (it goes to show how much Europeans knew about China at that time). They had great comedic timing (ah, the irony of preparing for both a wedding and a funeral), and looked like they enjoyed themselves.

I think I shall watch again. I hope they have a different cast, so that it is a different performance all together.