Giuseppe Adami (1878–1946)

La commedia nacque da una frase buttata lì da Dina Galli a Giuseppe Adami: "Il mio sogno sarebbe quello di fare la bottegaia avere un bel negozio, troneggiare alla cassa, essere a contatto con una folla pittoresca di clienti, discutere di merci e di prezzi, mi divertirebbe di più che faticare tutte le sere recitando". Era un discorso sincero che si impresse nella testa di Giuseppe Adami e che lo spinse a vederla e pensarla bottegaia. Fu così che nel 1935 debuttò con Dina Galli, al Teatro Politeama di Como "Felicita Colombo" ricca e intraprendente salumiera milanese. Di che cosa può essere capace una madre per difendere la felicità della sua unica figlia? Se la madre in questione può essere capace di tutto, specialmente quando a minacciare questa felicità è un nobile decaduto che ha sperperato il patrimonio di famiglia tra il vizio del gioco e il suo amore per le facili sottane. "Di tutto": queste due parole sono il compendio di Felicita Colombo, una straordinaria combinazione di forti sentimenti e sano umorismo. La protagonista è una donna forte, decisa, una saggia e popolaresca bottegaia piena di buon cuore di buon senso, ma che dietro una apparente severità cela una grande dolcezza e amore verso il prossimo.
Con Rosetta, la sua unica figlia, fidanzata e prossima alle nozze, ha un rapporto di grande amore e complicità. Quando la ragazza le confessa in lacrime che il suo futuro suocero si oppone alle nozze per banali motivi di rango, Felicita benchè ferita nell'orgoglio, non si dà per vinta e con il buon senso e la scaltrezza di una popolana, riesce non solo a ridurre l'uomo alla ragione, ma soprattutto a salvare il suo lavoro, la sua unica fonte di distrazione, la sua gioia, in una parola, il senso stesso della sua vita.… (meer)

Turandot is the last opera of Puccini, one of opera’s greatest. Nearing completion when Puccini died of a heart attack in 1924, it was finished by Franco Alfano in 1926. This wonderful, short opera is both enrapturing and poignant. Tears roll as though on cue.

Turandot is based on the fairy tale of the princess, Turandot, that demands her suitors to answer three riddles; any wrong answer results in a beheading. In the end, she finds love in the “Unknown Prince”, Calaf. Puccini added comic relief in the form of Ping, Pang, Pong – the three ministers. And being Puccini, a tragic heroine is required – Liu, the slave girl.

Turandot’s aria, Nessun Dorma, was made super famous in 1990, when The Three Tenors performed it during the pre-final game of World Cup in Italy. Luciano Pavarotti continued to sing Nessun Dorma as his signature piece; some may say belting it out as a Dramatic Tenor, as opposed to the Lyric Tenor that he is. But don’t expect to hear such bravado at the opera itself. This aria is meant to be sung by a Lyric Tenor.

Reading an opera libretto is very similar to reading a play – the staging, the position of individuals, the layering of verses sang by different individuals or groups, etc. The teleprompter in the opera house does quite a disservice to the translation. This book edition is the original translation from 1926 and still printed in Italy today.

Quotes:

The power of a smile – Liu’s love for Prince Calaf. Liu cared for his father, Timur, for many years after his exile:
Prince: “And why, child, hast thou shared so much anguish?”
Liu: “Because one day, from the Palace, you smiled at me!”

Ping, in trying to dissuade the Unknown Prince from attempting to win Turandot’s love, to save his own life, offers this bit of humorous advice:
“Leave women alone! Or take a hundred wives, a hundred wives, for, after all, the most sublime Turandot in the world has but one face – two arms and two legs – yea, wondrous, majestic, nevertheless, only those! With a hundred wives O fool, thou wilt have legs galore! Two hundred arms! And a hundred bosoms fair! On one hundred couches scattered!”

Ping, Pang, Pong lamenting over the many deaths of Princes that failed to answer the riddles:
“For years now our feasts have been reduced to joys like these: Three sounds of the gong, three riddles and off with more heads!...”

Riddle 1:
“In the depths of night an iridescent phantom takes its flight. It soars and spreads its wing over infinite humanity wrapped in gloom! Addressed in supplication and evoked by all, the phantom disappears at dawn to be reborn within the heart of man! And thus each night it is born anew, to fade away at the night of the day!”
Answer: (Anagram) EOPH

Riddle 2:
“It spurts like a flame, and yet is not a flame!
At times it is deliriant! And always a fever!
A fever impetuous, full of intensity! But inertia transmutes it into langor!
If thou losest or makest forfeit of thy life, cold it grows!
If thou dreamiest of conquest, in ardency it glows!
Its voice in agitation thou perceives.
Of the setting sun it has the vivid glow!”
Answer: (Anagram) DOLOB

Riddle 3:
“Ice which gives thee fire! And from thy fire ice begets! Candid and obscure! If freedom she grants thee, into greater slavery thou fallest! If as slave she accepts thee, a King thou shalt be!”…
Answer: (Anagram) DANROUTT

Nessun Dorma – the famous aria:
Nobody Shall Sleep! … Neither shalt thou, O Princess,
In thy cold chamber thou watchest the stars twinkling with love and hope,
But within me hidden lies my mystery,
My name no one shall know!
Only by the light of morn
Upon thy lips will I whisper it!
And my kiss shall break the silence that shall make thee mine!...
O Night depart! O Stars hasten your setting!
At the dawn of day, conqueror I shall be!

Liu’s final aria, who sacrifices herself to save Timur and the Unknown Prince, and teaches Turandot about Love:
“Yes!... Princes! Listen to me!...
Thou who in ice art girth, vanquished by so much fire, thou also wilt love him! Ere the day shall dawn, my tired eyes I will close, that victory may be his once more… in death I will repose!..”… (meer)