Imagine that you see the girl of your dreams for the first time. Staring across the moonlit sky, your eyes meet and it’s love at first sight. As your gazes cross, you instantly feel that spark. While this romance might sound like a typical Romeo and Juliet love story, its true nature is much more twisted than that. That one special moment in time where you held each other’s gaze mesmerizes you and you become a prisoner to her charm. The only way to free yourself is through her love.
The story of Turandot is one of obsession. Love becomes the sole driving force behind the characters’ actions, blinding them of all common sense and reasoning. A son gambles his and his father’s lives . A servant commits suicide to help make her beloved master’s wishes come true. Dozens of men kneel to their premature deaths in exchange for a chance at loving a princess. A princess, afraid of being hurt kills her suitors as to remain immune to love’s pain. Indeed the love in Turandot is more of a disease than an enjoyable emotion. It causes men to do terribly irresponsible things and feeds the atrocities within the kingdom. This unorthodox depiction of love exaggerates love’s ability to completely drive a person’s actions. Yet the happy ending in which the unloving princess Turandot falls in love with her noble suitor Calaf reveals that despite love’s illogical nature, love is still man’s ultimate fulfillment.
The music in the opera mirrors love’s complexity. Both pieces posted on the blog are quite grand and ostentatious. Questa Regia starts in a very somber manner. The dynamics of the piece aren’t too loud and as such, there is room for the song to grow to a climax. Towards the middle of the piece, the notes become slightly dissonant and I could imagine the lyrics referring to death, the ultimate wager in exchange for the princess’ hand in marriage. The ending was quite powerful and dreamy, making me imagine the glory in solving the riddles with an empire and a princess as reward. Nessun Dorma is a very passionate piece. It beautifully conveys the love driving Calaf to risk his life in the trial. The piece itself is very hopeful and makes me believe that Calaf truly wanted the princess above all else in the world.
Ultimately I was very content with the opera. I felt certain scenes were a bit overly dramatic, but I guess that comes with it being an opera. For example, the scene where Liu kills herself left me a bit perplexed. She could have denied her knowledge of Calaf’s name and lived, but her love for Calaf was such that living without him would be worse than death. Such an exaggerated image of love is unrealistic as Calaf only smiled at Liu once which developed into her obsession towards him. This dramatization is beautiful nonetheless and moves the audience. Ultimately, this opera left me with the idea that a life without love is a fate worse than death.
I like how you bring up that in this opera, love is an obsession. None of the characters who are supposedly ‘in love’ with each other know the person they love. They base their emotions on the instant spark, which could more accurately be described as attraction. Every single person in the play does something crazy because of their obsessions. And since it’s an opera, everything is overly dramatic. Liu’s death , especially, was totally uncalled for.
When I first read this play I did not see love as an obsession. Reading your post, I realize that love truly was the driving force behind many of the character’s actions. Calaf was willing to die to try and win Turnadot. Conversely, Turnadot was willing to do anything to prevent getting married and falling in love. Many of the characters were acting in relation to love, some were running away from it while others were trying to grasp at it. I have a newfound appreciation for the opera because it truly does explore love in a twisted and somewhat abstract manner than the usual conventional manner.
Your concluding lines, “This dramatization is beautiful nonetheless and moves the audience. Ultimately, this opera left me with the idea that a life without love is a fate worse than death” really resonated well with the whole point of the opera. Shown in each of the characters, we see the importance of love over everything else in their lives. The story is very engaging as we follow each individual wherever their fate takes them. And to say that love is an obsession was a very strong statement that reminded me the power that emotions have over people. I think that any feeling can develop into an obsession, just as fear is what overcame Turandot in her quest for (or lack of) love.