“Turandot” by Giacomo Puccini libretto (English)

Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three

ACT ONE

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.)

libretto by William Weaver

Contents: Roles; Act One; Act Two; Act Three