Turandot

by Ferruccio Busoni (1866 - 1924). Chinesisches Fabel in two acts. 1917.
Libretto by the composer, after the fairy-tale drama of Carlo Gozzi.
First performance at the Stadttheater, Zürich, on 11th May 1917.

Kalaf, son of the defeated King of Tartary, learns of the challenge Princess Turandot poses to possible suitors and answers the riddles she puts to him, after which she refuses to fulfil her promise. He puts to her the riddle of his own name, which is eventually revealed to her by Adelina, who has hoped to attract Kalaf. Turandot now seems about to order the execution of Kalaf, but instead proclaims her coming marriage.

Busoni made use for his opera of earlier incidental music for a staging of Gozzi's play, a work for Schiller's adaptation of which Weber had already provided music derived from exiguous secondary Chinese sources a century before. Busoni too has recourse to secondary sources for an oriental element in a work that retains much of its original commedia dell'arte source. There is a concert suite derived from Busoni's earlier incidental music to the play.