“Turandot” by Giacomo Puccini libretto (English)

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

ACT TWO

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!

libretto by William Weaver

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