The opera Turandot by famed author Giacomo Puccini is an interesting piece that is, as with any opera, full to bursting with drama from the opening act. The play begins almost at the climax of a plot point by announcing the execution of the Prince of Persia. The crowd proves to be bloodthirsty and enraged, so much so that an old blind man is pushed around and trampled on by the crowd. His slave cries for help and a man comes forward to aid her.
Upon realizing that the old man is his long-last father Timur, the deposed king of Tartary, he is overjoyed and immediately tells him not to speak his name because he fears the new Chinese rulers. Apparently, Liu (the slave girl) has given her life to help stay by Timur’s side, because the prince had once smiled at her. From the very beginning, the opera is highly unrealistic.
Of course, the Prince of Persia is too handsome to be killed, so the prince of Tartary begs Turandot not to have him executed. Though she ignores the crowd’s pleas, the second the Prince of Tartary sees Turandot, he falls madly in love
with her. He immediately strikes the gong, signaling that he wants to marry her. Of course, everyone tells him not to, even Liu. Why? Because she’s in love with him. This part irritated me. She hadn’t seen him in years, and simply because he smiled at her once when he was a child she’s been in love with him ever since? This screams ridiculously cheesy to me.
While reading this opera, I honestly expected it to get better the further in I got. I’m not so sure that I enjoyed this reading. The fact that she was so confident that she would kill all her suitors just annoyed me. The prince won her hand fair and square, in my opinion. She tells the whole kingdom that she’s going to kill all of them if nobody tells her the Prince’s name by sunrise, which is the complete opposite of what she said would happen if her suitor answered the three riddles correctly. Liu ends up killing herself for this guy. He’s not the great hero I thought he would be, either. He forces himself on Turandot. Their relationship dynamic just doesn’t make any sense. They both hate and love each other at the same time. It’s as if the writers forced a happy ending for the two.
Hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy the live opera, but reading it was just too much drama for me. It felt like something I could watch on basic cable, not something that has been highly acclaimed as Puccini’s best work.
I didn’t examine what the crowd’s behavior meant. It was great of you to point out just how bloodthirsty they were. In a way, the crowd would represent all the people of China to the Western world. It was no wonder China was offended by Turandot and refused to have it performed.
I agree with you that it is unrealistic for Liu to fall in love with Prince Calaf simply because he once smiled at her. She does not know who he really is, and yet she commits suicide in order to save his life and so that he can be with another person. It makes no sense, but I think the opera is trying to show us how strong love can be and the lengths people will go to in order to obtain it.
I agree with you in that the plot can be pretty unrealistic (like when Liu decides to be loyal even MANY years later, just because of a simple smile). It’s interesting because even though we find plots (in movies, plays, TV shows, and even in Operas) really unrealistic, there is still a sense of attraction to the material: What’s going to happen next? Why did she do this? Will that person care about that? Etc. This makes me question the point in storytelling– is there educational value? Entertainment value? Cultural preservation value? Does it instill morals? Etc. And I think its a little bit of everything and furthermore, I think its a very subjective experience, so it’s always interesting to hear people’s perspective of certain plots!