TURANDOT

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The story about Turandot,a Chinese Princess and Calaf,a Muslim Prince

Posted: 23 Sep 2012 

Turandot is an opera by Giacomo Puccini,made in the year 1924,and which is about a Muslim prince and a Chinese princess, called Turandot (a Persian name) of the Middle Ages.
Who is Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)?
Puccini was an Italian composer and one of the greatest composers of the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Puccini

Other famous operas by Puccini
1.Manon Lescaut (1893)
It is based on the novel “Manon Lescaut” by the Abbé Prevost (1697-1763)



2.La Bohème (1896)
It is about the lives of four students in Paris, a musician, a poet, a philosopher and a artist.There is also a girl, Mimi, who dies of tuberculosis at the end.
3.Tosca (1900)
Floria Tosca is a singer in Rome in 1800 and her lover is killed and she commits suicide.




4.Madame Papillon (1904)
It is Nagasaki in 1904 and a young American officer, Pinkerton,marries a geisha who is fifteen years old.Her name is Chio-Chio-San (which is Japanese for “Madame Butterfly”). Marriage is taken very seriously by the young Japanese woman. After the ceremony and after giving him a child, Pinkerton leaves.Waiting his return, she remains faithful to him and refuses many offers of mariage.Three years later, Pinkerton returns to Japan with his new American wife. When Butterfly understands the situation, she abandons her child and commits suicide by stabbing himself.
5.La fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Far West) (1910)
The action takes place in a mining camp in California at the time of the Gold Rush of 1849-1850.



The origin of the story of Turandot
It is a medieval Persian legend. The name of the heroine, Turandot, in Persian means “daughter of Turan”. Turan is the Persian name for Central Asia and, by extension, China.
The very beautiful and very cruel Chinese princess Turandot
1.Cruel Princess Turandot of Peking, whose beauty is legendary, attracts many suitors. She is the daughter of Altum,the Emperor of China.
2.The suitors must undergo an ordeal: answer three riddles and if they are answered then the suitor gets the princess as his wife and the throne of China.
3.But if the suitor fails then he is beheaded.

Turandot and Calaf

The Unknown Prince
1.He is Prince Calaf, a Muslim prince.His name is derived from the Arabic word “caliph / successor” and he is the son of Timur, King of Tartary,who is in exile. The prince of Persia had tried to answer the three riddles but failed and his execution is imminent.
2.The Unknown Prince arrives in Beijing and by chance finds his father,the king of Tartary,and who had become blind.The father has a young guide and slave called Liu, who loves the prince in secret because one day he smiled at her.
The Unknown Prince condemns the barbarity of the princess but when she appears he falls in love with her.Ignoring the warnings of his father and the tears of Liu he bangs with three blows on the gong, which indicates his willingness to answer the 3 questions.

Turandot

Why Turnadot does not want to marry
It is that her ancestor, Lou-Ling, Princess Beijing,had a pure and fresh voice which was rendered mute by her husband. Thus Turandot wants to take revenge on what was done to her ancestor by killing men.
Calaf is victorious
The three ministers of Turandot are Ping, Pong and Pang and they want somebody to be successful.The answers to the three riddles are: hope, blood, and Turandot herself. Calaf wins,he answers the 3 riddles.Turandot is distraught and Calaf generously offers to release her if she discovers his name be the next day at dawn.

Liu dies protecting the Prince

Ping, Pang and Pong try unsuccessfully to learn his name by torturing Liu, who says she is the only one who knows the identity of the foreigner. She stabs herself to save the prince, and takes the secret to the grave. At dawn, alone with Turandot, Calaf reveals his name, thus leaving his fate in her hands. Before the emperor, and all the people together, Turandot says she knows the name of the unknown,it is “Love.”

The Koran

A marriage completely forbidden by the Koran
As a Muslim Calaf could not marry Turandot, she was neither Muslim nor Jewish nor Christian,the Koran says:
Chapter 2:221:
“Do not marry idolatresses(Note:like a Hindu,Buddhist,animist woman), until they believe.
A believing slavegirl(Note:a Muslim slave woman) is better than an idolatress, though you may admire her.
And do not marry idolaters, until they believe. A believing slave(Note:a Muslim slave man) is better than an idolater, though you may admire him. Those call to the Fire; and God calls to Paradise, and pardon, by His leave, and He makes clear His signs to the people; haply they will remember.””


To verify you can go to quranbrowser.com which has:
http://www.quranbrowser.com/
1.Six translations by Muslims.
2.Four translations by Non-Muslims.
3.The text in Arabic,with Latin letters.

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