Puccini’s Last Act: Finishing Turandot

Deborah Burton

Abstract: Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot is an opera about solving riddles.

But the final riddle is how Puccini would have finished the last scene
had he not died before completing it in November 1924. This paper first
briefly discusses previous attempts at completing the opera—including
those by Franco Alfano, Luciano Berio, Janet Maguire, and Hao Weiya—
as historical and compositional context. It then examines my own
process of completion based both on known and previously unpublished
autograph sketches, guided as well by clues gleaned from Puccini’s
correspondence and from analyses of all his scores.

My process involved using as many of the extant Puccini sketches as

possible, choosing among alternate versions of the same passage,
placing textless sketches in appropriate dramatic situations based
on similar musical moments in earlier Puccini operas, creating music
based on earlier Puccini models of similar dramatic moments (model
composition) where there were no sketches extant, and making sure that
a coherent tonal plan was in place. Specifically, my analytical approach
to Puccini’s compositional style as reflected in his correspondence
and other completed operas drew on the following: the concept of la
solita forma, Puccini’s desire for an orchestral “peroration,” references
to Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, a preponderance of anapestic
rhythms, the testimony of Puccini’s neighbor Salvatore Orlando, and the
pictures of Wagner and Beethoven that Puccini kept on his piano during
the composition.

Keywords: Puccini, Turandot, Tristan, Berio, sketch

G
iacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot is about solving riddles. But the final
riddle is how Puccini would have finished the ending had he not died
before completing it in November 1924. Some scholars have asserted
that, for various reasons, Puccini had been unable to finish the work, yet evidence
is clear that he played the finale for Galileo Chini, Guido Marotti, and possibly
Arturo Toscanini.1 A letter from musicologist Leonardo Pinzauti to composer
The Opera Journal, Vol. 55, No. 2, pp. 1–60. ISSN 0030-3585. © by the National Opera
Association, Inc., 2022. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: operajournal@noa.
org.
Deborah Burton is Associate Professor of Music at Boston University, her research concerning
opera analysis, and the history of theory, emphasizing Italian sources. She was president of
the New England Conference for Music Theory from 2006-2008. Her monograph, Recondite
Harmony: Essays on Puccini’s Operas (Pendragon, 2012) is available as an Ebook from Boydell &
Brewer. She organized events at the Met and elsewhere in December 2010 for the centenary of
Luciano Berio indicates that a young neighbor, Salvatore Orlando, also heard
Puccini perform the finale, and spoke with him about it.2 At his death, Puccini left
behind thirty-six pages of musical sketches (now housed at the Archivio Storico
Ricordi in Milan), a copy of the libretto with various musical annotations (location
unknown), and some separate sheets with musical ideas jotted on them.3
In April 1926, the opera was given a posthumous premiere, with the finale
completed by Franco Alfano, a younger composer (1875–1954) who was under
great pressure to complete it. In short, his finale, still heard today, is not the
ideal solution. Part of the problem may lie in the stressful conditions under
which Alfano’s solution was composed. It was a fairly thankless task, with Alfano
describing the difficult situation in this letter of 6 August 1925:

Here I am at work; the difficult work of choosing and creating, of

patching, of chiseling. To choose from the sketched manuscript
materials that which He perhaps would have omitted—and turn it into
and present it as...presentable. To throw out that which He would have
certainly rejected. Cut here, develop there...and then... to create ex-
novo that which doesn’t exist. And not be too Alfano!...an immense
effort, an immense responsibility. At least what is missing is only the
last duet with the opera’s close. But it is precisely here that Turandot
is revealed, appearing as she would already have been without the
Puccini’s Fanciulla del West, with a website www.fanciulla100.org. She taught a course on Puccini
at the University of Rome, and co-edited Tosca’s Prism: Three Moments of Western Cultural
History (Northeastern, 2004); she has published articles in Theoria, Studi Musicali, Nuova Rivista
Musicale Italiana, Opera Quarterly, Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale,and others. Dr. Burton
was an originator of and participant in the interdisciplinary conference “Tosca 2000” in Rome,
honoring the centennial of Puccini’s opera.
———
I would like to thank the following, without whom this project could never have been completed:
Dieter Schickling, Paul Roberts, John Musto, Martin Amlin, Jeff Atmajian, Anthony Barrese, Amy
Burton, Cori Ellison, Peggy Monastra, the Boston University School of Music and College of
Fine Arts, the Archivio of the Fondazione Simonetta Puccini per Giacomo Puccini, and the Paul
Sacher Stiftung (Basel, Switzerland: Sammlung Luciano Berio). The translations from Italian to
English are my own.
1 For assertions that Puccini had been unable to finish the opera, see for example, Carner,
Puccini, 279ff. Composer Luciano Berio, who wrote his own Turandot ending in 2001, also stated:
“‘I believe that Turandot was left unfinished not because of Puccini’s death but because he
was betrayed by an intractable libretto” Berio, Giornale, n.p., also cited by Porter, “Solving the
Enigma,” 670. For evidence of Puccini’s playing the finale for the various individuals referenced,
see Valleroni, Puccini minimo, 168; Marotti/Pagni, Giacomo Puccini intimo, 206; Adami, ed.,
Epistolario, 192; Gara, Carteggi, n. 898.
2 More about this below. Uvietta, “Berio’s finale for Puccini’s Turandot,” 195 n. 18.
3 Maehder has published extensively on the sketches, writing, for example: “Puccini left
23 sheets of musical sketches, partly written on both sides, amounting in total to 36 pages of
sketches in short score, with many annotations regarding the orchestration [...] about two-thirds
of Alfano’s additions must be regarded as his own composition. [...] The 23 pages of sketches
can be subdivided into four different groups which were originally held together by metal paper
clips.” Maehder shows how the rust left by the clips can determine the original grouping: the
first three groups show continuous flow of music, but fourth group is single pages, probably
belonging to different stages of musical composition. Maehder, “Puccini’s ‘Turandot,” 35–36.
 terrifying legend of her ancestor. [...] I won’t be able to meditate much.
By November, the opera must “go” at La Scala!! Compose, organize,
orchestrate...and consign it in time for the press, the copyists and the
rehearsals.4

The musical sketches with which Alfano worked were selected for him by Guido
Zuccoli, an employee of the Ricordi publishing house. Zuccoli also made a more
legible transcription of some of Puccini’s death-bed sketches for Alfano, who was
suffering from an eye ailment.5 It is probable that in this transcription—which
contains some misreadings—Zuccoli also copied in some annotations that were
in the now-lost libretto, because several of them do not appear in the thirty-six
well-known autograph pages.6
Soon after the moment of Puccini’s death, writes Dieter Schickling:

the person from Ricordi responsible for preparing the piano-vocal

score of the opera, [Zuccoli] [...] retrieved the extant sketches for the
final duet and closing scene from Puccini’s family, and he probably
put together a selection of them [...] for Alfano, which were later
returned to the Ricordi archives. It appears that Zuccoli arranged the
passages that were close to being finalized according to their order
in the libretto and incorporated some additional sketches that Puccini
possibly intended for later use in the opera. However, judging from
the various manuscripts that have recently been offered for sale by
various antiquarians and auctions, Zuccoli obviously retained several
other remaining leaves.7

One acerbic criticism of Alfano’s work is that he did not use all the autograph
sketches available to him (even without considering those that were not). But, as
Alfano explains in the quotation above, he saw his task partly as selecting from
among the sketches those that, in his estimation, Puccini would have kept, and
omitting those to be “certainly rejected.” In fact, the sketches shown to Alfano
were a subset of a larger group that had already been narrowed down by Zuccoli.
As to the charge of being “too Alfano”—that is, writing in his own style
4 “Ed eccomi al lavoro = Pesante lavoro di scelta e di creazione, di rattoppo, di cesello... =
Scegliere nel materiale manoscritto abbozzato ‘quello’ che Lui forse avrebbe lasciato —e tornirlo
e presentarlo...presentabile = Scartare ‘quello’ che Lui avrebbe certamente ripudiato = Qui
togliere, li sviluppare; ...e poi... creare ex-novo quello che non c’è = E non esser troppo Alfano!...
= Fatica immane = Responsabilità enorme = Meno male che il mancante è soltanto l’ultimo
duetto con la chiusa dell’opera = Ma è appunto qui che si svela Turandot —che appare quale
essa sarebbe già stata prima senza la paurosa leggenda dell’ava sua = [...] Troppo meditare non
potrò = Per novembre l’opera deve ‘andare’ alla ‘Scala’!! = Comporre = ordinare = strumentare...
Consegnare a tempo per la stampa e la copiatura e la concertazione.” Letter to Mario Vivarelli, 6
August 1925. Cogliandro, “L’epistolario di Franco Alfano” 845. Quoted partially in Parker, “Berio’s
Turandot,” note 9.
5 “Since Alfano suffered from an eye disease which caused a serious delay in his work,
Ricordi sent their collaborator Maestro Guido Zuccoli [...] to Turin in order to assist Alfano in his
work.” Maehder, “Puccini’s Turandot,” 47.
6 See Appendix for more information.
7 Schickling, Giacomo Puccini: Catalogue, 392.
rather than that of Puccini—Alfano did not succeed in sidestepping that pitfall.
Jürgen Maehder writes succinctly: “Generally speaking, the additions made by
Alfano do not attempt to imitate Puccini’s musical style.”8 As is well-known,
when Toscanini saw Alfano’s completed work, he demanded Alfano include more
Puccini and less Alfano. Obeying Toscanini meant that out of the 377 bars of
his first version, Alfano had to cut 102 bars, replace 31 bars with materials from
Puccini’s sketches, and accept alterations to several vocal lines in addition to
other subtle modifications.9
There have been several other attempts to complete the opera, such as
that by Janet Maguire in 1988 (which has never been performed), and by Luciano
Berio in 2001, which tends to sound more like Berio’s post-modern comment
on Puccini rather than a continuation in Puccini’s older style.10 As Marco Uvietta
writes: “It is a guarantee of composerly authenticity that, even while identifying
himself with Puccini, Berio never stops being Berio.”11 And Berio himself has
stated: “I have rethought the finale completely.”12 More recently, in 2008 Chinese
composer Hao Weiya completed his finale for the opera, with some advice from
the Puccini Foundation in Italy. It was performed at the inauguration of the
Beijing National Centre for Performing Arts.13 Hao’s finale is a composition much
more in the Puccinian style than the Berio. However, he neither attempts to use
all the available sketches nor to retrace the path that Puccini’s hints indicate,
thus marking it as a different sort of project from mine.
Approximately a decade ago, I was able to access copies of nine autograph
sketches not part of the thirty-six pages in the Archivio Storico Ricordi, which
had been in a private collection in Germany.14 Because they originated from
8 Maehder, “Puccini’s Turandot,” 44.
9 Fairtile, “Duetto a tre,” 172.
10 See also Maguire, “Puccini’s Version of the Duet.” I have a more extensive comparison
of all these finales is forthcoming.
11 Uvietta, “Berio’s finale for Puccini’s Turandot,” 187–188, n. 2. Uvietta writes: “Berio
confined his research to the transcription of the sketches made (presumably for Alfano) by
the editor of the vocal score, Guido Zuccoli, shortly after Puccini’s death. [...] Doubtless one
day Berio’s reliance on the Zuccoli transcription will itself become the object of philological
study.” In fact, Berio’s longtime assistant, Paul Roberts, compared the Zuccoli transcription to
the Puccini originals when creating his digital versions of the sketches for Berio, and made
several significant alterations, in addition to renumbering them in a logical order. [Personal
communication, August 2022]. The slightly different Italian original reads: “Poco dopo la
morte di Puccini, presumibilmente in vista del lavoro di Alfano, gli schizzi per il finale furono
trascritti da Guido Zuccoli, il curatore delIa riduzione per canto e pianoforte.[...] Berio si è riferito
esclusivamente a questa trascrizione, circostanza che un giorno potrà — anzi, dovrà - essere a
sua volta oggetto di studio filologico, ma che in alcun modo mette in discussione la validità dell’
operato del compositore..” Uvietta, “Un finale Puccini-Berio per Turandot,” 402 n. 7.
12 Berio, Giornale. Quoted in Parker, “Berio’s Turandot,” 100.
13 “Hao studied Puccini’s texts and the opera for about a month. Then, in just six weeks, he
penned an 18-minute ending. It was then revised seven times, with help from experts from the
Puccini Foundation in Italy.” Lim, “Chinese Composer.” A video is currently available at: https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz3ww_mEu9Q/.
14 Thanks to Dieter Schickling, who lists the sketches as 91.A.III.35.a (four pages),
91.A.III.36.a and b and 91.A.III.38.a. Schickling, Giacomo Puccini: Catalogue, 378.
the Zuccoli family, I label these the “Zuccoli” (Z) sketches.15 Neither Alfano,
Maguire, Berio, nor Hao used—or possibly even knew about—them.16 Would it
now be possible, with this extra autograph material (and other sketches I recently
examined at the Puccini archive in Torre del Lago) to create a Turandot finale
similar to what Puccini had in mind? I have attempted to do so, and this article
details my path to “realizing” a new “Puccinian” ending.17 In Part 1, I describe the
newly accessed material, and discuss my methodology in putting it all together,
with the help of six “clues.” Part 2 is a detailed look at each small section of the
new finale, describing my rationales for the use and placement of each sketch.
Finally, the Appendix shows incipits of each of the sketches and collates the
various enumerations to which they have previously been referred.

PART 1
Newly Accessed Autograph Material
With an expanded quantity of source material, my completion is probably
not precisely what Puccini would have composed, but it is plausibly Puccinian.
Whatever I created is based, if not directly on the sketches, then upon earlier
Puccini models, overlaid with 1920’s Turandot-type chromaticism and bitonality.18
Maguire calculates that the abbreviated Alfano II finale “adds up to
150 measures of music in Puccini’s hand.”19 My version of the finale uses 185
measures of Puccini’s music, plus another 81 that are reused or slightly amended
from earlier in the opera, for a total of 266 measures of Puccini (of 343 total). My
own contributions span only 77 measures, all based on Puccinian models.
In general, Puccini composed from beginning to end, so the sketches for
the finale’s beginning are the most complete—a “continuity draft” lasting some
fifty-seven bars. This means that all completions of the finale would begin the
same way, unless a transition from the earlier half of Act III is added (as Berio
does). I do, however, insert in this first section the sketch that Maguire and others
15 Appendix 1 is a table that shows the incipits of all the sketches and their various labels.
16 A few of these sketches were published by Teodoro Celli in the 1950s, with very poor resolution,
and reprinted in 1985 in the Quaderni Pucciniani, a publication administered by Simonetta Puccini,
the composer’s late granddaughter. Celli states in this article that the sketches were owned (in 1951)
by Giafrancesco Bucchi, but later corrects that in a footnote in the 1985 reprint: in short, the sketches
were actually in the possession of Guido Zuccoli’s daughter, who did not want her name published.
Celli goes on to explain: “In what way and in what circumstances those sketches came into the hands
of Guido Zuccoli, and then his daughter, I couldn’t say. It seemed to understand that they were given
to Zuccoli by Puccini himself.” [In quale modo e in quali circostanze quegli abbozzi fossero pervenuti
nelle mani mani di Guido Zuccoli, e poi della figlia, non saprei dire. Mi sembrò d’intuire ch’essi
fossero stati donati allo Zuccoli da Puccini stesso.] Celli, “Gli abbozzi per Turandot,” 45, 61.
17 Finale of Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot,” realized by Deborah Burton, forthcoming.
18 Puccini’s bitonality in Turandot involves two chords a half-step apart, but with one note
in common; for example, C# major and D minor share the note E#/F. And Puccini often created
diatonic versions of a passage, adding more dissonance later. See Burton, Recondite Harmony,
chapter 2.
19 Maguire, “Puccini’s Version of the Duet,” 320.
label “12-tone” (which is not dodecaphonic in a Schoenbergian serial sense, but
actually a rising chromatic figure). Puccini left several versions of this sketch,
three of which, including one of the Zuccoli sketches, show that it was indeed
intended to be part of the first, long section, before the text, “Ma l’anima è lassù.”
My solution makes a few other changes that affect the dramaturgy as well
as the musical content. First, one sketch (B3), which has not been used previously
even though it was part of the original group, contains the words “O my sweet
creature! Fragile and tired, I almost no longer dare to caress you!”— a text not in
the published libretto.20 This sentiment shows a different side of Calaf, one who
is pulling back from exerting his aggressive passion—almost, but not quite, a
#MeToo moment.
The Zuccoli sketches show a number of fascinating details that will be
discussed in Part 2 below. For example, Puccini scribbled instructions to himself
for a third-act aria sung by Turandot (on sketch Z6a) derived from an aria from
Edgar. In addition to the Zuccoli sketches, in 2019 at the Puccini archive in Torre
del Lago, I came across a published Chinese song on which Puccini had annotated
an early sketch of the chromaticism he had in mind for Turandot, transcribed in
Appendix 1 (TdL1). 21 Puccini’s note, dated 19 May 1920, demonstrates that he was
thinking from the beginning in terms of clashing dissonant major sevenths and
half-steps.22
Then, in summer 2022, I studied some early libretto versions and Puccini’s
sketches for the first two and a half acts.23 Even though these sketches would seem
to not be directly related to the Act III finale, occasionally Puccini made notations
referring to that last section.24 Two of these sketches are included in my finale.
One is a working-out of the opera’s opening motive, linked in different keys a fifth
apart. The other is a list of Chinese melodies (originally written in German and
translated into Italian) on which Puccini scribbled a line of transposed opening
motives in 32nd-notes, accompanied by the comment “uccellando” [bird-like].
This I added as an obbligato, as dawn begins to break (and birds start to sing),
even though the idea was probably originally intended as an obbligato to the aria
20 “O mia dolce creatura, fragile e stanca, Quasi non oso più la mia carezza! Di sfiorar la
tua bianca divina purità!” According to Celli, the text continued: “di sfiorar la tua bianca, divina
purità.” The musical sketches show several variants from the libretto that Puccini was setting.
The libretto was published in a form established by the librettists, without Puccini’s final say.
Perhaps a revised libretto version will surface someday that can be used to establish a clearer
picture of the version(s) Puccini had at hand. Celli, “Gli abbozzi,” 54.
21 My thanks to archivist Manuel Rossi, of the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, who assisted me
in finding this material.
22 From Puccini’s annotated copy of Fenner, Cleaveland and Rathbun, Cabin and Plantation
Songs, 161.
23 Archivio Puccini, Torre del Lago: ms. 10a, fonti musicali.
24 On one fascinating page (sketch TdL3), he has written “per duetto” and writes two
parallel whole-tone melodies, a half-step apart, thus creating a true 12-tone complex. Even more
intriguing is that he writes this complex at three different pitch levels, a half-step apart: on
F-C#-G and F#-D-G#, both of which spell out the opening motive, a major third (F-C# and F#-D)
and a tritone (C#-G and D-G#).
“Nessun dorma.”

The Six Clues

Guiding my “realization” of the Turandot finale (or as confirmation of my
prior intuitions) were six clues gleaned from letters and other written material of
Puccini and his acquaintances. A letter from Puccini to his librettist Giuseppe
Adami of 18 November 1923 supplies two of these hints about what the finale
should be: “It must be a grand duet. The two beings almost outside the world
enter to be with humans because of love, and this love in the end must permeate
everyone on stage in an orchestral peroration.”25 [emphases added]. These clues
are: 1) the concept of la solita forma; 2) an orchestral “peroration;” 3) references
to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde; 4) anapests; 5) what Salvatore Orlando witnessed;
and 6) the pictures of Wagner and Ludwig van Beethoven that Puccini kept on his
piano during composition.

La solita forma
Puccini’s use of the term “grand duet” refers to the concept of la solita
forma dei duetti [the usual form of duets]. In Italian opera of the 19th-century
bel canto period, there were schemata of multi-part structures first described
by Philip Gossett and later codified by Harold Powers.26 Collectively, they are
designated la solita forma and contain alternating active/kinetic and stable/
lyrical sections.27 Principally, though, the form permitted dynamic changes in
characterizations and situations over extended musical stretches. As such, the
“gran duetto” was generally composed of these sections, sometimes following a
recitative or scena:

I. tempo d’attacco (opening movement)

II. adagio (or cantabile)

III. tempo di mezzo (middle tempo, containing a dramatic shift)

IV. cabaletta (faster moving virtuostic section)

In famously considering Turandot “the end of the Great Tradition” of Italian

Romantic opera, Ashbrook and Powers cite its division into clearly defined units
as evidence of the opera’s place in the number opera tradition, and the authors

25 Adami, ed., Epistolario, 195. [Deve essere un gran duetto. I due esseri quasi fuori del
mondo entrano fra gli umani per l’amore e questo amore alla fine deve invadere tutti sulla scena
in una perorazione orchestrale.]
26 Gossett, “Verdi, Ghislanzoni, and ‘Aida’,” 300ff; Powers, “‘La solita forma’,” 68ff.
27 The term originally comes from Basevi, Studio sulle opere di Giuseppe Verdi, 191.
provide a table of solita forma units in Turandot’s Act II.28
The solita forma was considered passé early in, if not before, Puccini’s
career. By 1899, librettist Luigi Illica had placed it firmly in past, saying that
musical forms determined by verse structure used to work well in the “days of
the cabaletta,” but were no longer of use.29 But like the 18th-century sonata form,
la solita forma continued to wield influence—directly or indirectly— beyond its
historical boundaries. As Andrew Davis writes, in regard to the music that Puccini
completed: “I view the discussion as ongoing and the issue as far from settled:
clearly the solita forma conventions remain distantly removed from Puccini’s
formal strategies in large portions of his works, but just as clearly, it seems,
Puccini’s scores and librettos [...] provide compelling evidence that on some
occasions the conventions are not entirely irrelevant. More to the point, hearing
Puccini’s music with this question in mind [...] provides fascinating opportunities
to interpret its theatrical effect and expressive meaning.”30 Following Davis’s lead,
then, one can see the musico-textual sections of the Turandot finale “in dialogue
with” the solita forma, if not perfectly aligned with it, and reflecting the dynamic
growth of the characters:

I. tempo d’attacco: the confrontation between the Prince and Turandot

after Liù’s death, followed by the kiss and Turandot’s collapse, [mm.
1–84, kinetic]

II. adagio: The prince’s arioso “Mio fiore” and Turandot’s aria revealing
her feelings for the prince, “Del primo pianto” [mm. 85–175, static]

III. tempo di mezzo (with a dramatic shift): The prince reveals his
name, and Turandot is again empowered [mm. 176–272, kinetic]

[IV.] SCENE II: (not a cabaletta, but certainly a climax that could
conceivably substitute for one.) Turandot and Calaf appear before the
court and people, Turandot says Calaf’s name is Love, and a happy
ending ensues. [mm. 273–343, formal but not static]

Orchestral peroration
In the letter from Puccini to his librettist Giuseppe Adami of 18 November
1923 referenced above, Puccini also writes: “this love in the end must permeate
everyone on stage in an orchestral peroration.”31 Since all of the composer’s
operas end with some kind of instrumental statement—albeit some longer than
others—the orchestra (perhaps heard as the narrator’s voice) can be seen to have
28 Ashbrook and Powers, Puccini’s “Turandot”, 6–7, 13. They have created tables of these
numbers on pages 16ff, analyzing Act II, rehearsal numbers 0–21.
29 “Il verso andava bene al tempo delle cabalette.” Gara, Carteggi, 186.
30 Davis, Il Trittico, Turandot and Puccini’s Late Style, 6.
31 Adami, ed., Epistolario, 195. [questo amore alla fine deve invadere tutti sulla scena in
una perorazione orchestrale.]
the final word. It is often in these final moments that a musical “problem,” usually
a motivic one, is at long last resolved—a strategy not unlike the famous ending
of Tristan.32 Therefore, my completion of Turandot seeks to do exactly that: an
orchestral closing statement that resolves the opening motive.

References to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde

Puccini’s mature operas show a strong influence of Wagner, and often
have musical quotes.33 In Turandot, Puccini left a written note in sketch B13
for the Act III finale that reads, “then Tristan” [poi Tristano]. Celli believes that
Puccini wanted the Mariner’s theme (“Frisch weht der Wind der Heimath zu”).34
And Maehder believes that the text that would have accompanied this reference
to Tristan, is Calaf’s “What does life matter / Death is also beautiful!” dramatically
related to the longing for death in the Wagner opus.35
Nevertheless, I suggest that a more pressing dramatic theme is that
of Love, and that accordingly the “Tristano” to which Puccini refers is actually
the Liebesruhe [Love’s rest] Leitmotiv from Tristan’s Act II/scene 2 duet, a
descending major third then a tritone. The jagged shape of this motive—played
fortississimo in parallel octaves at Turandot’s beginning—could depict Turandot’s
cruelty, which will ultimately transform into a milder version suggesting love.36
Puccini, in sketch B20, also writes the word “Tris” with a capital T,
suggesting “Tristano.” The music below it is a rising chromatic line on the pitches
G#-A-Bb—the beginning of Tristan’s “Sehnsucht” [Desire] Leitmotiv from bar 2
of the famous Wagnerian prelude. In the Puccini sketch, that melodic fragment is
repeated, rising chromatically. I combine this line with iterations of the opening
motive to create a Tristan-esque moment, following Turandot’s Isolde-like text:
32 Resolutions of (sometimes expanded) opening motives occur in all of Puccini’s mature
operas except Madama Butterfly. One example is the beginning of Puccini’s Il tabarro where the
first sonority is a dissonant ninth, A above G: the anomalous A must somehow resolve, if all is
to end tonally. In fact, at the C-minor close of the opera the melodic pair A-G is repeated three
times, displacing a standard melodic close on the tonic note C. It seems as though Puccini goes
out of his way to use A here, and not Ab, the normative sixth degree of C minor, played only one
bar before. See Burton, Recondite Harmony, chapter 3.
33 See Burton, Recondite Harmony, chapter 1 for a fuller discussion of this topic, with
examples.
34 Celli, “Gli abbozzi,” 62.
35 “Che m’importa la vita! / È pur bella la morte!” Maehder, “Studi sul carattere,” 105.
36 In Tristan, Wagner’s motive is initially set diatonically, over a prolonged Gb major. But
it can be adapted to various pitch collections. In Turandot, the motive is set both diatonically
such as at I/25/11, and in whole-tone settings as at I/39/13. At first, the opening motive is written
on A-E#-B: the first interval of four semitones is written as a diminished fourth (A-E#), not a
major third (A-F), giving the E# the function of leading-tone to F# minor, which appears as a
local tonic soon after. But this motivic pattern—a major third + tritone—is used throughout the
opera, openly as after Act I /11 [C-Ab-D] or furtively, as in Turandot’s “Cosa umana non sono”
using pitches Db-A-Eb: Db-(Bb)-A-(C-Gb)-Eb. (III/36). Also, this motive consists, in its most
compact arrangement—that is, superimposing the tritone onto the whole step—as an example
of what I term Puccini’s “signature,” which appears in almost all his works. In fact, if one were
to switch the order of the opening notes of Turandot (A-E#-B) to B-A-E#, the result would be the
(transposed) opening bass line of Tosca, Bb-Ab-E.
“this terrible and sweet fire, by this fever that comes to me from you!” in bars
171–76.37 (Ex. 1)

Example 1—Placement of “Tris” annotation from sketch B20, combined with opening
motive, Finale of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, realized by Deborah Burton, mm. 171–76.
(©2022 Deborah Burton)
Anapests
An important aspect of Puccini’s creativity is his rhythmic skill. There are
sketches for Act I of Turandot on display at the Puccini Museum at Torre del Lago
that show rhythm only.38 In Turandot, many themes are rhythmically anapestic
(short-short-long). In addition to the opening motive, others include the choral
“Pu-tin-pao” (I/18/16); the funeral march for the Prince of Persia (I/21); Timur’s
question, “O figlio, vuoi dunque ch’io solo trascini pel mondo?” [O son, do you
want me to wander the world alone?] (I/41/3); the Act II scene change music
(II/25/2); the arrival of the mandarins (II/28/8); the “riddle/enigma” theme
(II/50/1); and there are also anapests in sketch Z5a for the finale.39 It is possible
37 “Questo foco terribile e soave, da questa febbre che mi vien da te!” It is interesting
to recall that Isolde was first trying to kill Tristan (and herself) before falling in love with him.
This passage can be heard, after Turandot’s aria, at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz3ww_
mEu9Q/.
38 Similar sketches exist for La fanciulla del West. See Burton, Recondite Harmony, 205–6.
39 Score locations are indicated by act/rehearsal number/measures after the rehearsal
Puccini was inspired by the anapests in the Chinese melodies he borrowed (at
II/1 and III/10), or others that he did not use, but which were included in his copy
of the Jules A. Van Aalst book on Chinese music.40
Most significantly, there is the prolonged anapestic section of Liu’s
death, which begins at III/27 and lasts until the moment Puccini “laid down his
pen.” Ashbrook and Powers make explicit the musical connections between the
anapestic Act I funeral march, and Liu’s death in Act III, writing that they are
both in Eb minor, and that, followed by pauses, they mark off the first half of their
respective acts, adding “the steady and monotonous short-short-long funeral
anapaest rhythm […] dominates them both.”41
The continuity draft of the finale also begins with an orchestral anapest,
fortissimo and stridently in A minor, a tritone distant from the sad end of Liù’s
Eb-minor death scene. In other words, the shared anapestic rhythm itself is the
transition, making no further transition necessary. Ashbrook and Powers write:

The rhythm and contours from Liù’s funeral cortège are preserved
but the tempo is changed and the dynamics and voicing are nastily
distorted. The three-stroke anapaest is there, a little faster and a lot
louder as though in rude parody of the immediately preceding soft
chordal anapaest that ends the funeral cortège [...] and in hollow
fourths and fifths.42

Why should anapestic rhythms be so prevalent in the score? One could hazard
a guess that they ultimately derive from the heroine’s name—and the title of the
opera. In any event, Puccini’s wide use of anapests provided a model for my
process.

What Salvatore Orlando witnessed

On 29 December 2001 musicologist Leonardo Pinzauti wrote a letter to
Berio about Salvatore Orlando, a young neighbor of Puccini, who later reported
what he had seen and heard at the composer’s house: “During a holiday some
time around 1923, the young Salvatore went to visit Puccini at his new house in
Viareggio, and it was there he said (with tears in his eyes) that the Maestro played
him the finale of Turandot on the piano. ‘Salvatorino,’ said Puccini, ‘I’m going to
play you the last scene: it’s a finale like that of Tristan.’ Orlando remembered that
the last bars were pianissimo.”43 Without a supporting secondary source, doubt
number.
40 Van Aalst, Chinese Music, 44–46.
41 Ashbrook and Powers, Puccini’s “Turandot”, 108–10. Davis, Il Trittico, Turandot and
Puccini’s Late Style, 51 also mentions anapests.
42 Ashbrook and Powers, Puccini’s “Turandot”, 134.
43 “Durante una vacanza, intorno al 1923 […], il giovane Salvatore andò a far visita a Puccini
nella sua nuova casa di Viareggio e fu qui che il Maestro, come diceva con le lacrime agli occhi,
gli suonò al pianoforte il fmale di Turandot. ‘Salvatorino - gli disse - ti faccio ascoltare l’ultima
scena: è un finale come quello di Tristano.’ E Orlando ricordava che le ultime battute erano
could be cast on this testimony. Yet, Orlando’s description parallels what Puccini
does in his other works, which strengthens the case for veracity.
There are two points here: first, the ending should be like that of Tristan—
which implies that the opening motive resolves in the final bars—and second, the
ending is pianissimo. Without having read this letter, I had already composed the
last bars, resolving the opening motive as Wagner does in Tristan. This is typical
for Puccini as well: for example, see the end of Tosca Act I, or the conclusions of
Manon Lescaut or La fanciulla del West. I had also ended my finale pianissimo,
because Puccini ended most of his non-tragic endings in that way (as he does
at the end of Act I of La bohème, the end of Act I of Butterfly, or the conclusion
of La fanciulla del West.)44 The Pinzauti-Berio letter was a welcome confirmation
of my prior decisions. Further, in Puccini’s pianissimo “happy” endings, the main
characters (lovers) leave the stage together, so I had Turandot and Calaf also exit
hand-in-hand at the end of Turandot as well, echoing the chorus’s “Amor, amor.”45
This is one of only two minor changes I made to the original stage directions.

Pictures of Wagner and Beethoven on Puccini’s piano

As I have noted elsewhere, writer Ugo Ojetti, during a visit to Puccini’s
home in Viareggio, saw portraits of Beethoven and Wagner on his music stand,
standing guard over the Turandot manuscript.46 Notably, all the other photos and
images in his home were of friends or famous acquaintances. We have seen
the importance of Wagner, and especially Tristan, to Puccini the often-secret
Wagnerian, but it might be rather surprising for the reader to imagine Beethoven
serving as guardian angel, in spite of his venerated status at the time Puccini
composed Turandot.
Beethoven, an inspiration to Wagner and countless others, is well known for
his brilliant manipulation of motives: one thinks naturally of the Fifth Symphony’s
famous opening that returns repeatedly in varied guises. But Beethoven also used
his motives in macrocosmic as well as microcosmic ways, as audible surface
events and structural organization. Puccini also uses his motives in both small-
and large-scale structures, a subject on which I have written extensively.47
pianissimo.” Uvietta, “Un finale Puccini-Berio,” 406 n. 12.
44 Gianni Schicchi does not end quietly, but this is Puccini’s only comedy and thus a
different sort of opera.
45 Alfano’s original ending also had a moment when Turandot and Calaf singing “Amore”
by themselves, but not as the final word.
46 Ojetti, Cose Viste, 336–37. Quoted in Burton, Recondite Harmony, 5.
47 For example, in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the striking chord that opens the last
movement is made up of the notes D-F-A-Bb, a combination of D minor and Bb major triads.
Those same pitches constitute the main theme of movement III (D-A-Bb-F); and the keys D
minor and Bb major are opening keys of all four movements: D minor, D minor, Bb major, D
minor. In Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, the opening pitches (E-A-E-C#) appear writ large as final
tonics of that opera’s first three acts: I (A major-E major), II (A minor), III (E major).
In Turandot, it is possible to envision a similar concluding resolution. The pitches F# (or
Gb), Bb and D—which form an augmented chord, or a major-third cycle—are reiterated at salient
Methodology
My methodology for realizing the finale—and achieving my goal of using
as many of the sketches as possible—was to first examine all the sketches and
other preparatory materials at the Luciano Berio Collection of the Paul Sacher
Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland.48 Then I stabilized legible transcriptions of the
sketches, and compared them with the Zuccoli transcription.49 The next steps
were to choose among alternative versions of the same passage, and to place
the sketches without text in the appropriate dramatic situations, based on similar
musical moments in earlier Puccini operas. Where there are no sketches extant,
I created music based on earlier Puccini models of similar dramatic moments
(model composition), adding Turandot-type chromaticism and bitonality. Lastly, I
made sure that a coherent underlying tonal plan was in place.
Questions, however, can arise about accidentals in the sketches. Maguire
writes, “[Puccini’s] way of leaving out key signatures and indicating accidentals
on only one note in a measure is often disconcerting.”50 Because of my goal of
tonal coherence with a modernist chromatic overlay, some compositional license
in altering accidentals was necessary.
Transposition, too, is a thorny topic, and there is much scholarly commentary
by Puccini scholars on the subject.51 Puccini often transposed long sections of his
opera at late stages of composition, and some sketches for the finished sections
of Turandot demonstrate that his original, sketched ideas were transposed in
the final version. Therefore, when necessary to maintain tonal coherence, I
transposed some sketches.

PART 2
This section is a detailed examination of each scene and, accompanied
by the libretto text and English translation, describes the rationales for my
completion. As noted previously, the first scene of the finale is divided into three
moments throughout the opera. This major-third cycle ultimately acts as a dominant substitution
for Bb major (the dominant of Eb). On the largest scale, Act I opens in F# minor, Act II with
bitonal gesture ending on Bb in the bass, and Act III opens with D minor in the lower stratum
of the bitonal complex. There are also shorter structural units based on F#-D-Bb. If one accepts
these patterns as an indicator of the overall direction of the opera’s tonality—as well as the
similarities in construction between the first and third acts—then it looks like Turandot’s ending
would resolve this large-scale major-third cycle to Eb. The first act ends, however, in Eb minor,
while the (happy) conclusion of Act III would be in Eb minor. In 2001, Berio’s Turandot finale
ends in this key of Eb major, not in Alfano’s choice of D major, Maguire’s of Db major. or Hao’s of
A major. See Burton, Recondite Harmony, chapter 3 for Puccini’s use of motivic elaboration and
expansion in much of his oeuvre.
48 Berio’s longtime assistant, Paul Roberts, generously shared with me some of the
preparatory material he created for Berio.
49 In my work with the legible transcriptions of the sketches, I am indebted to the generous
assistance of Paul Roberts.
50 Maguire, “Puccini’s Version of the Duet,” 322.
51 See Parker and Atlas, “A Key for Chi?”; Atlas, “Crossed Stars and Crossed Tonal Areas”;
and Greenwald, “Puccini, Il tabarro, and the Dilemma of Operatic Transposition.”
main sections, followed by the second scene. Together, these four units are
subdivided and examined below in light of Puccini’s sketches and other relevant
material.

SCENE 1
I. confrontation after Liù’s death the kiss, Turandot collapses [mm.
1–84, “tempo d’attacco”]
[bars 1–19, sketch B152]

IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:

Principessa di morte! Princess of death!
Principessa di gelo! Princess of ice!
Dal tuo tragico cielo From your tragic heaven
scendi giù sulla terra! Come down to earth!
Ah, solleva quel velo Ah, take off that veil
guarda, guarda, o crudele, See, see o cruel one,
quel purissimo sangue that purest blood
che fu sparso per te! that was spilled for you!
(E si precipita verso di lei, (And he rushes toward her, tearing
strappandole il velo) off the veil)

Although Puccini was a master of the smooth transition, he sometimes

wanted a clear break for extremely dramatic moments. The most extreme shift
would be moving from one key to another a tritone distant, such as C to F#, A
to Eb, and so forth. One earlier example of this technique is in La boheme, Act
IV/12/31, when Musetta and the dying Mimi enter after the raucous merrymaking
of the males: here, the music suddenly shifts from Bb major to E minor, a tritone
(and an emotional world) away.
In Turandot, Puccini ends the scene of Liù’s death in Eb minor and the
sketches pick up in A minor, a tritone distant. Because this is a moment of
extreme emotional contrast (and a formal marker between halves of the act), the
tritone shift seems appropriate, with no transition needed. In fact, the transition
is the anapestic rhythm itself, common to both scenes, as noted previously; the
jarring switch from Eb minor to A minor should not be smoothed over.
Further, among the many parallels between the first and third acts of
Turandot, there are death scenes midway in each act that end in Eb minor,
accompanied by a shift of dramatic focus from crowds to individuals. And in the
first act, at I/25/0, Puccini uses the same shift from Eb to A.
52 Please refer to the Appendix for the original numeration of the sketches.
 In contrast, Parker notes Berio’s insertion of a transition at this point:

[The transition] softens the edges of this join by adding a fifteen-

measure transition, all of Berio’s invention [...] There is much to admire
in the delicacy of Berio’s solution here, not to mention the economy of
means that can establish so much that is musically important to the
scene in so few bars. [...] But [Puccini] was also famous for his ability [...]
to articulate new stages in the drama by means of musical non sequiturs.
[...] As in the Act 1 “break,” it signals the start of an entirely new phase
of the drama, one that makes better sense if understood violently to
disregard the preceding stage action and musical atmosphere.53

This section is the beginning of a long continuity draft that has been assumed to
be Puccini’s final word on the first 57 measures of the duet. However, Schickling
posits that these continuous pages were written by Puccini in September 1924,
attempting to pull together the finale, after a long break in work: in other words,
they might not necessarily be in their final form.54 For instance, Puccini left three
versions of the “12-tone sketch” (B17, B20, and Z2), which show that it belongs in
this first section.
Puccini’s original tempo marking at the start of the finale is quarter = 80
(Alfano uses the near-equivalent, half = 40). In rehearsal, though, that tempo
appeared too slow to suggest the Prince’s rage, so I have suggested quarter =
108. Luigi Ricci quotes Puccini saying “tempos that are ‘too slow’ kill the action,
put it to sleep, they make it slothful and heavy, like all dead things.”55 And making
adjustments after a rehearsal or performance is very much in the Puccinian
tradition as well: as Ricci writes that, with Puccini’s supervision, “some numeric
indications were changed, others added.”56

[bars 20–31, sketches B1, B16, B16A, Z1, Z2]

TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
(con fermo viso sereno) (with a serene, still face)
Che mai osi, straniero! How dare you, stranger!
Cosa umana non sono… I am not human...
Son la figlia del Cielo I am heaven’s daughter
libera e pura! Tu free and pure! You

53 Parker, “Berio’s Turandot,” 101–5.

54 Schickling, Giacomo Puccini: Catalogue, 391.
55 “I tempi ‘troppo lenti’ fanno morire l’azione, la narcotizzano, la rendono accidiosa e
pesante, come tutte le cose morte.” Ricci, Puccini interprete, 11. An overview of Puccini’s tempo
markings and their relation to specific emotional characterizations will soon appear in Suzanne
Scherr’s forthcoming Tempo in Puccini Operas.
56 “Qualche indicazione numerica è stata cambiata, qualche altra aggiunta.” Ricci, Puccini
interprete, 12.
 stringi [strappi] il mio freddo velo grasp [rip] my cold veil
ma l’anima è lassù! but my spirit is on high!

While sketch B1 seems fairly finished, Puccini left another version (B16)
that shows the same melody preceding Turandot’s text, in a majestic 6/2 meter:
when her voice comes in, it has the marking “rapido,” and the meter immediately
changes to cut time. Sketch B16a is completely in 6/4 meter but includes alternate
text (possibly for the Prince): “io quel sangue non temo” [I do not fear that blood].
Sketch Z1 is also in 6/4, but carries the instrumental indications of pizzicato celli
in the first bar and woodwinds in second.
Despite the fact that the continuity draft (B1) does not contain it, there
exist several versions of the rising chromatic pattern (“12-tone” sketch) that show
it belongs in this first section. Sketch B17, which is in 6/4, shows the sketch’s
placement that Puccini intended, leading directly into my bar 30. Sketch B20, on
the other hand, is in 2/4 with dotted rhythm. Sketch Z2 shows Puccini attempting
to use it for Turandot’s text: “Tu strappi il mio freddo velo.” The presence of
so many versions of the “12-tone” sketch, now revealed to belong in Turandot’s
initial response, indicate that the composer was still trying to find the best way
to work it in. I have inserted B17 in mm. 27–29, before “ma l’anima è lassù,” as
shown in several of these sketches.57 (Ex. 2)

[bars 31–49, sketches B1, B1a, B19, B21]

IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:

(che è rimasto per un momento (who has remained for a moment
come affascinato, indietreggia. as if fascinated, backs off. But he
Ma si domina. E con ardente regains control. And with ardent
audacia esclama:) audacity exclaims:)
La tua anima è in alto, Your spirit is on high,
ma il tuo corpo è vicino! but your body is near!
Con le mani brucianti With burning hands
stringerò1 i lembi d’oro I will grasp the golden edges
del tuo manto stellato. of your starry cloak.
La mia bocca fremente I will press my trembling
premerò su di te! mouth on yours!

1 or “sfiorerò” as in B1.

57 Maguire places this sketch at the end of the duet, when Turandot knows Calaf’s name
because, she writes, “[Puccini’s] use of twelve-tone music here is his way of saying that what
Turandot is saying is false.” Maguire, “Puccini’s Version of the Duet,” 339–40.
Example 2—Placement of sketch B17 in Finale of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, realized by Deborah Burton, mm. 26–30.
(©2022 Deborah Burton)

(E si precipita verso Turandot (And he rushes toward Turandot

tendendo le braccia) stretching out his arms)
TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
(arretrando sconvolta, spaurita, (falling back distraught, terrified,
disperatamente minacciosa:) desperately threatening:)
Non profanarmi! Do not profane me!
IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:
(perdutamente) (desperately)
 Ah, sentirti viva! Ah, to feel you alive!
TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
Indietro!… Indietro!… Go back!...Go back!...
IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO THE UNKNOWN PRINCE
Il gelo tuo è menzogna! Your coldness is false!

This swaying 9/8 music, whose melodic line is based on a descending

second, is compositionally related to the opening of Act III, sans the bitonal
touches, and it seems to express the Prince’s passionate attraction to Turandot.
The soprano’s part is mostly relegated to brief, fearful reactions. In retrospect,
then, perhaps the opening of the act is suggestive of the Prince’s ruminations on
his love, leading up to “Nessun dorma.” Puccini indicates that the chromatic runs
in this section should be played by violas or cellos, while the horns and harp take
the chordal structures.
Sketch B1a is essentially the same as B1, but without syncopated chords.
Sketch B19 is an even less developed version of the same material, labeled
“frammento del brano precedente” [fragment of the preceding passage], which
could have been intended for a later recall of the theme. Sketch B21 is a half-step
higher, has slightly different rhythm, and octaves instead of syncopated chords.

[bars 50–58, sketch B1]

TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
No, mai nessun m’avrà! No, no one shall ever have me!
Dell’ava mia lo strazio My ancestor’s torture
non si rinnoverà! Ah, no! will not be repeated1. Ah, no!
Non mi toccar, straniero! È un Do not touch me, stranger! It is a
sacrilegio! sacrilege!
IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:
No! il bacio tuo mi dà l’eternità! No! Your kiss gives me eternity!

This passage has the same music as Turandot’s Act II/47–48, and shows
her defiance. At II/47, this theme appears in three keys, Gb, Bb, and D (all major
thirds apart). Following the pattern Puccini has established, the music then moves
to Eb major at II/48 “Gli enigmi sono tre…” Then, we again get F# (Gb) major,
and at II/49, the bass moves Bb-D, completing another major-third cycle before
the riddle scene commences.
Sketch B1 shows a similar completed major-third cycle, but now on C - E -
Ab, leading into the Prince’s pre-kiss demand.
 [bars 59–65]

(E in così dire, forte della (And saying this, strong in the

coscienza del suo diritto e awareness of his right and of his
della sua passione, rovescia passion, he pulls Turandot over
nelle sue braccia Turandot, into his arms, and kisses her
e freneticamente la bacia. frenetically.) Turandot—under such
Turandot—sotto tanto impeto— force—has no more resistance, no
non ha più resistenza, non ha più more voice, no more strength, no
voce, non ha più forza, non ha più more will. The incredible contact
volontà. Il contatto incredibile l’ha has transfigured her.)
trasfigurata.)

There are no musical sketches extant for this wordless passage, which is
the moment the Prince’s passion explodes, and he violently kisses Turandot: any
music for it must be created ex nihilo. However, the stage directions indicate
not only the Prince’s brutal sexuality, but Turandot’s overwhelmed and painful
reaction. After the kiss, as the stage directions indicate, she collapses feeling
lost—a far cry from the magical kiss of fairy tales that makes all things right. In
fact, Turandot at that moment would probably be recalling the traumatic rape and
murder of her ancestor Princess Lou-Liang.
As noted previously, both characters develop dynamically throughout this
long gran duetto, a feature aligned with the nature of the solita forma. Here, the
Prince (whose life is being threatened) begins by revealing a violent passion, and
Turandot’s initial reaction is to collapse in trauma and fear. It will not be until
after the Prince sees her fragility and backs off that Turandot can finally reveal
her attraction to him in the passage “In your eyes was the light of heroes.” The
ideal musical setting then should reflect this complexed and nuanced dramatic
situation.
The Alfano solution, according to Parker, does not succeed in portraying the
subtleties at play: “The missing kiss takes up a mere two measures: Tristan-like
dissonance piles on dissonance and then releases onto a sequence of rhythmically
irregular, triple forte bangs on the drum, bassoons, and trombones. If this is a
representation of sex, then the act is a barbaric, messy business, overwhelmingly
concerned with power.”58 Ashbrook and Powers offer no complete solution, but
posit that Puccini intended the musical ideas notated on sketches B10a–c of
the sketch material “as a draft for the whole of the kiss music.”59 However, each
of these sketches was designated by Puccini himself as transitory preparations
58 Parker, “Berio’s Turandot,” 98.
59 Ashbrook and Powers, Puccini’s “Turandot”, 136–37.
for “Mio fiore”—the passage that would follow only if there were no music for
Turandot’s reaction, which there surely should be.
So what should the kiss music sound like? In a letter to librettist Renato
Simoni in December 1920, Puccini outlined a possible plan for the final act (then
Act II), including a “bacio moderno” [modern kiss]. But what did “modern” mean
to Puccini in 1924? Musically, it certainly included bitonality, of which Turandot
as a whole is redolent, and would probably entail another major-third cycle. How
he might have understood this in a cultural or dramatic sense remains to be
determined.
I modeled the Turandot kiss on the climactic one in La fanciulla del
West, Act II. Here, the innocent heroine Minnie is kissed passionately, and for
the first time, by her bandit love Ramerrez. Although the dramatic situation is
quite different, the kiss itself is a turning point that unites the two characters
going forward, just as in Turandot. Puccini sets Fanciulla’s kiss scene by using a
repeated descending step motive (familiar from earlier in the opera) in a whole-
tone setting. Following this model for Turandot’s kiss scene, I used the theme
from the Prince’s “La tua anima”—which was already a derivation of the Act III
opening music—repeated it at distances of a major third, on D-F#-Bb-D, and
added bitonality.60 Like the kiss in Fanciulla, there is a stringendo and large
crescendo to fff, all accompanied by an anapestic “heartbeat” in the bass on C#.
(Ex. 3)

Example 3—Kiss scene in Finale of Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, realized by Debo-

rah Burton, mm. 59–64. (©2022 Deborah Burton)
60 This last created a Turandot-like clash of chords a minor second apart but sharing a
common tone: D minor +C# major, F# minor+F major, Bb minor+A major, ending again on D
minor +C# major.
Example 3 (continued)
Example 3 (continued)

Turandot’s reaction to the kiss is not a happy one, so I created for her
lamenting descending half-steps built on Tristan chords (with a slowing anapest
“heartbeat”), which decrease in volume and tempo until only a unison sounds.61

[bars 65—84, sketches B7, B6, B10b and c]

(Turandot—sotto tanto impeto— (Turandot—under such force—

non ha più resistenza, non ha più has no more resistance, no more
voce, non ha più forza, non ha più voice, no more strength, no more
volontà. Il contatto incredibile will. The incredible contact has
l’ha trasfigurata. Con accento di transfigured her. With a pleading,
supplica quasi infantile mormora:) almost infantile expression, she
murmurs:)

61 At one point, Puccini even thought of having two kisses. In a letter of 24 October 1921 to
librettist Adami, Puccini wrote “In the duet, I think it could arrive at great pathos. And to reach
this, I say Calaf must kiss Turandot and show his great love to the cold woman. After the kiss,
another kiss that lasts a few seconds long.” Adami, ed., Epistolario, 175. “Nel duetto penso che
si può arrivare ad una pathos grande. E per giungere a questo io dico che Calaf deve baciare
Turandot e mostrare il suo grande amore alla fredda donna. Dopo baciata con un bacio che dura
qualche lungo secondo.”
 TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
Che fai di me?… Che fai di me?… What did you do to me?... What
did you do to me?
[text omitted: Qual brivido!… [text omitted: What a shudder!...
Perduta!… Lost!...
Lasciami!… No!…] Leave me!...No!...]

Puccini left no music for Turandot’s reaction after the violent, passionate
kiss to the Prince’s sweet “My flower” at bar 85—which is quite a change of
mood. According to the stage directions, Turandot collapses here, overcome with
emotion. In this post-kiss moment Turandot would have been remembering the
rape and murder of her ancestor (Lou-Liang), given that she said those ancient
events were the cause of her cruel attitude toward men. So, inserted here is a
slow, dirge-like F# minor passage in duple meter, inspired by the “Lou-Liang”
music in Act II/44, and accompanied by an anapestic “heartbeat” pedal point.62
Similar musical patterns appear in the brief, untexted transitional material
of B7 (from the Zuccoli transcript only), which have been used to connect the
previous section to the terrified music of sketch B6 at bar 74. Based on augmented
triads with added dissonance and in triplet rhythms, sketch B6 suggests Turandot’s
terror, its fast rhythms possibly indicating her quickened pulse. It is also akin to
a passage in La fanciulla del West (Act I/40) where there is a threat of violence.
And there are similarities also to the triplet rhythms of Timur’s terrified reaction
at I/26 to his son’s infatuation with the dangerous princess. Therefore it made
sense to place it here. The sequential pattern indicated in Puccini’s sketch was
extended.
For a transition to the Prince’s following arietta “My flower,” Puccini left
(and labeled) three possible sketches: B10a (where Puccini writes, “qui mio fiore”
[My flower here]), B10b, and B10c (where he adds “mettere mio fiore” [put my
flower]). Sketches B10b and B10c are similar but different in dynamics, and B10c
also uses Tristan (half-diminished) chords, and different inner voices. Berio uses
B10a here.
I set Turandot’s exclamation “What did you do to me?” to sketches B10b
and B10c, after which Puccini even sketched in the beginning chords of “My
flower.” The omitted text (see above) could have fit perfectly with sketch B10c
62 Another view of Turandot’s and Calaf’s characterizations was expressed by soprano
Andrea Gruber to Joshua Neumann: “Turandot is a coming-of-age thirteen-year-old who is a pawn
in her father’s game of suitors, riddles, and beheadings. Believing Lo-u-Ling is reborn in her or
that she is Lo-u-Ling provides a two-fold escape for Turandot—one from her father’s domination
of her will and actions (which explains part of Turandot’s identifying with her ancestress), and
the other from her burgeoning sexuality, which she has no way to control […] Calaf’s outbursts
indicate his awareness of Turandot’s situation and his confidence that he will free her from
her present bondage.” Neumann, “Phenomena, Poiēsis, and Performance Profiling,” https://
emusicology.org/index.php/EMR/article/view/5827/4972/.
(at bars 82–84), but I concluded that an instrumental echo was more eloquent;
this decision followed Puccini’s general predilection to trimming down the text.
For instance, in a letter to his wife of 22 December 1920, his reaction to an early
Turandot libretto draft was “too long, too verbose, too literary and not effective
enough.”63 And on 9 July 1922, he wrote “I finally have the third act of Turandot:
it is good and beautiful but not yet ready. I must suggest revisions and the use
of scissors.”64

II. Dawn begins, her cloak falls [mm. 85–175, adagio (or cantabile)]
[bars 85–108, sketches B2, B2b]

IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:

Mio fiore, My flower,
mio fiore mattutino… Ti respiro… my morning flower... I breathe you...
i seni tuoi di giglio Your lily-like breasts
treman sul mio petto… tremble on my chest...
Già ti sento Already I feel you
mancare di dolcezza… tutta bianca fainting from sweetness... all white
nel tuo manto d’argento… in your silvery cloak...
TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
(con gli occhi velati di lagrime) (with eyes veiled in tears)
Come vincesti? How did you win?
IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:
(con tenerezza estatica) (with ecstatic tenderness)
Piangi? You’re weeping?
TURANDOT: (rabbrividendo) TURANDOT: (shuddering)
È l’alba! È l’alba! It’s dawn! It’s dawn!
(E quasi senza voce) (And almost without voice)
Turandot tramonta! Turandot is setting!
IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: (con THE UNKNOWN PRINCE: (with
enorme passione) enormous passion)
È l’alba! È l’alba!… E amor nasce It’s dawn! It’s dawn!...It is love
col sole! that is born with the sun!
(Ed ecco nei silenzi dei giardini (And here, in the silence of the
dove le ultime ombre già gardens where the last shadows
accennano a dileguare, delle are already almost dispelled, the
voci sorgono lievi e si diffondono subdued voices rise gently and
quasi irreali) almost unreal, diffuse)

63 Marek, Puccini, 294.

64 “Ho avuto finalmente il 3° atto Turandot: è buono e bello ma non ancora a posto. Debbo
suggerire rifacimenti e applicare forbici.” Puccini, S., Lettere a Riccardo Schnabl, 181.
 LE VOCI: THE VOICES:
L’alba! Luce! Vita! Dawn! Light! Life!
Tutto è puro! All is pure!
Tutto è santo! All is holy!
Principessa, Princess,
che dolcezza what sweetness
nel tuo pianto!… in your weeping!...
TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
Ah! Che nessun mi veda!… Ah! Let no one see me!...
(E con rassegnata dolcezza) (And with resigned sweetness)
La mia gloria è finita! My glory is finished!
(Cade il manto.) (Her cloak falls.)

Sketch B2 is an almost complete version of the Prince’s gentle, atmospheric

arietta and the apparent continued weakening of Turandot’s defenses. As such,
there is little that was needed to add or adjust. The final B-major chord of this
sketch marks a point of dramatic punctuation, as it is here that Turandot’s cloak
falls, and along with it, her inhuman (and inhumane) emotional distance. The
sketch’s final B-major chord connects perfectly with the opening of sketch B3,
which adds an A below a B-major chord, then passing down one more step to the
G (major) of “O mioa dolce creatura” [O my sweet creature].

[bars 108–127, sketches B3, B7]

IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:

[O mia dolce creatura! [O my sweet creature!
fragile e stanca, Fragile and tired,
Quasi non oso più la mia carezza! I almost no longer dare to caress
you!
di sfiorar la tua bianca {bella} To touch your divine, white
divina purità!] {beautiful} purity!]
(con impetuoso trasporto) (with impetuous passion)
No! Principessa! No!… No! Princess! No!...
La tua gloria risplende Your glory shines
nell’incanto in the magic
del primo bacio, of the first kiss,
del primo pianto! of the first tears!

Puccini finished quite a bit of this passage, but also noted to himself:
“detach the aria—it has a melody that is typical, charming, unusual, then a reprise
with the bass at the distance of thirds.”65 The text “quasi non osa più la mia
carezza” [I almost no longer dare to caress you] places this passage after the first
kiss. Following his instructions, I added a reprise with the bass in thirds, at bars
117–19. This reprise had no given text, but, according to Celli, the text was meant
to be “di sfiorar la tua bianca, divina purità!” [To touch your divine, white purity!]66
An interesting musical passage that inserts a bit of bitonality into the G major
(ending in B minor in my version), this is also a fascinating moment dramatically.
As noted above, this sentiment shows a gentler side of Calaf, retreating from
aggressive passion. At the same time, however, he praises Turandot’s “white
purity,” which rings discordantly to modern ears. Although my stated goal is to
reconstruct as best as possible what Puccini would have composed, I felt that
I could not leave this line unaddressed; my compromise is therefore to offer
the performer an optional alternate text: “bella” (beautiful) instead of “bianca”
(white).
In this more cantabile section of the finale, Turandot will soon have her
chance at an aria. But, in order to transition into that, the Prince must not retreat
any further. In his “No! Principessa! No!…”—the melody was taken from Act II/
65—and in what follows, he dispenses with all self-doubt and reaffirms her glory.
“Your glory” is set to a transitional sketch in B7, which appears in the Zuccoli
transcription but not in the autograph sketches. I resolve Puccini’s final soprano
G to an F#, to lead more directly into the F# minor of Turandot’s aria, “Of my first
tears,” a transition made clear from the text.

[bars 128–175, sketches B7, Z6a]

TURANDOT: (esaltata, travolta) TURANDOT: (excited, overwhelmed)

Del primo pianto… sì… Yes, stranger, of my first tears...
Straniero, quando sei giunto, when you arrived,
con angoscia ho sentito with anguish I felt
il brivido fatale the fatal thrill
di questo male of this supreme
supremo! evil!

Quanti ho visto sbiancare, How many did I see go pale,

quanti ho visto morire how many did I see die
per me!… for me!...

65 “staccare aria – ha melodia, tipica, vaga, insolita, poi ripresa con bassi a terza di
distanza”
66 Celli, “Gli abbozzi,” (rep.) 54.
 E li ho spregiati And I scorned them
ma ho temuto te!.. but you I feared!...

C’era negli occhi tuoi In your eyes was

la luce degli eroi, the light of heroes,
la superba certezza. the proud certainty.
E per quella t’ho odiato, And for that I hated you,
e per quella t’ho amato, and for that I loved you,
tormentata e divisa tormented and torn
tra due terrori uguali between two equal terrors
vincerti od esser vinta… to defeat you or be defeated..
E vinta son!… and I am defeated!...

Son vinta, I am defeated,

più che dall’alta prova, more than by the high trial,
da questo foco by this terrible and sweet
terribile e soave, fire, by this fever that
da questa febbre che mi vien da te! comes to me from you!

This moment is a turning point for Turandot, who finally admits that she
has different feelings for the Prince than for her other suitors.67 Puccini wrote only
the beginning of this F#-minor aria in sketch B7, so it was necessary to continue
it. I modeled the ternary form on another last-act Puccini aria, “Sola, perduta,
abbandonata” from Manon Lescaut, which has a similar dirge-like bass.68 These
two moments, while expressing quite different dramatic situations, share a tragic,
anguished mood. In sketch B7, Puccini’s choice of F# minor (usually associated
with tragedy in his music), plus the dirge-like bass, emphasize a similar somber
mood.
For the middle section, I turned to sketch Z6a, the beginning of which
I used for the section “How many did I see go pale”—but “modernized” with
altered accidentals. The shape of the melody here remains pure Puccini.
On the same sketch (Z6a), Puccini had scribbled instructions to himself:
“Nel villaggio, but with chords and harmonized differently and modern movements
and reprises and surprises, etc., then the other duet theme.” I took “Nel villaggio,”
an aria from Edgar, and followed the composer’s directions, adding more modern
harmonies and meters, and a reprise. I also found at the Archivio Puccini
67 A recording of this aria can be heard at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtnQfPCSuKY/.
68 Although a da capo form may seem anachronistic to Puccini’s era, “Sola, perduta,
abbandonata” is only one example of his compositional technique that uses a rotational form.
James Hepokoski has identified rotational form in Butterfly’s “Un bel dì” (ABA’+coda) and in
Suor Angelica overall. See Hepokoski, “Un bel dì?: vedremo!” and “Structure, Implication, and
the End of Suor Angelica”: 241–64.
additional confirmation that Puccini was thinking early on along these lines in
an annotation he wrote on sketches for Act II. Where the aria “In questa reggia”
is now, the composer writes, “Aria Turandot / perhaps aria Edgar nel villaggio
differently really!69 We cannot, of course, know definitively whether Puccini would
have used the Edgar aria in Act III, but since Zuccoli collected this sketch with
the other deathbed materials, we can conjecture that the idea was possibly still
on his mind at the end.
There is nothing in sketch Z6a, however, that indicates where it should
be placed. Knowing that Puccini often related passages to specific emotional
content, I looked at the text of the original first version of “Nel villaggio,” which
states “I will see him in my memory as I saw him from the first day….sweet….
strange, meek and proud, as I saw him from the first day.”70 In other words, this
text speaks of a remembered, admiring first impression, which is similar to what
Turandot expresses: “In your eyes was the light of heroes, the proud certainty” and
so forth. There might also be another connection to Tristan here, since the first
few notes of “Nel villaggio” (“In your eyes was the light of heroes” in my finale)
are almost identical to “O sink hernieder Nacht,” another theme from Tristan’s
Act II love duet: Eb-F-Ab-Cb-Eb. I also added some Tristan (half-diminished
seventh) chords. Following the aria, in bars 172–74, as noted previously I have
placed Puccini’s sketch B20 that refers to “Tris.” (See Ex. 1 above)

III. The Prince reveals his name, Turandot empowered again, end of
scene 1 [mm. 176–272, tempo di mezzo]
[bars 176–185, sketch Z6]

IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:

Sei mia!… Sei mia!… You’re mine!...you’re mine!...
TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
Questo chiedevi… This is what you asked..
Ora lo sai! Più grande Now you know! Don’t ask
vittoria non voler! for a greater victory!
Non umiliarmi più!… Don’t humiliate me more!...
Di tanta gloria altero, With so much lofty glory,
parti, straniero, leave, stranger,
parti col tuo mistero! leave with your mystery!

In sketch Z6, from which Turandot’s aria “Del primo pianto” has been
developed, Puccini writes “poi altro motive duo” [then the other duet motive]. I
69 “Aria Turandot / forse aria Edgar nel villaggio diversamente macché!” Archivio Puccini,
Torre del Lago, ms. abbozzi V. T. 10.
70 “Lo rivedrò col memore pensier come lo vidi, lo vidi fin dal primo giorno …dolce...bizzarro,
mansueto e fier, come lo vidi fin dal primo giorno!”
took this to indicate Act II/47–48, already used at bars 50–58, which fits perfectly
with the text “This is what you asked,” and so forth. That section appears in C
major, so in creating a transition that leads into it, for the Prince’s “You’re mine,”
I repeated the incipit of that melody on the major-third cycle E-Ab-C. The theme
that arrives is itself unstable, also moving to different major-third related keys:
after C major comes E major at bar 182, and Ab major at bar 184.

[bars 186–196, sketch B12]

IL PRINCIPE IGNOTO: THE UNKNOWN PRINCE:

(con caldissimo impeto) (with heated impetuosity)
Il mio mistero?… Non ne ho più!… My mystery?... I no longer have it!...
Sei mia! You’re mine!
Tu che tremi se ti sfioro, You who tremble if I touch you,
tu che sbianchi se ti bacio, you who pales if I kiss you,
puoi perdermi se vuoi! you can lose me if you want!
Il mio nome e la vita insiem ti My name and my life together I
dono: give you:
io sono Calaf, il figlio di Timur! I am Calaf, the son of Timur!

This is the moment when the Prince reveals his name, and thus gives the
power and agency back to Turandot. Interestingly, in an early libretto draft at the
Puccini archive at Torre del Lago, along with alternative text for “Nessun dorma!”,
one finds a different motivation for this reversal: it was in exchange for releasing
his captured father.71
Puccini’s sketch B12 is fairly complete, a sequential series of utterances
by the prince, each one beginning on the rising pitches A-Bb-C-D-Eb-F, and
culminating in a high Bb. The supporting harmonies, however, are mostly
simple triads, with some neighbor notes: in short, it needed “modernizing”—
part and parcel of the composer’s compositional method. Maehder agrees that
this sketch is probably not in its final form: “Puccini’s corresponding melodic
sequence, contained on page 16 recto [B12] and characterized by Spike Hughes
as a ‘monstrously banal, amateurishly inept sequence’—would probably not have
constituted the final version of this passage; or if so, it would probably have
been rendered more natural by a different surrounding musical structure.”72 The
simplest way to modernize this passage—in light of what that term would have
meant to Puccini in 1924—was to turn the triads into Tristan (half-diminished)
chords.
There are two other locations in the Turandot score where the bass moves
71 Archivio Puccini, Torre del Lago, fasc. V.1.10c.
72 Maehder, “Puccini’s Turandot,” 46.
chromatically: an ascending Gb-Bb in Act I/5–8, over a long stretch when Calaf
encounters his father and Liù, and a descending F#-Bb in the brief transition
to “Tu che di gel sei cinta” before Act III/27. In this latter example, Puccini
harmonized chromatic descent with Tristan chords.

[bars 197–208, sketches B13, Z3]

TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
(alla rivelazione improvvisa e (at the sudden and unexpected
inattesa, come se d’un tratto la revelation, as if all at once,
sua anima fiera e orgogliosa si her fierce and proud spirit is
ridestasse ferocemente) ferociously reawakened.)
So il tuo nome!… Il tuo nome!… I know your name!...Your name!...
Arbitra sono ormai del tuo I am now the arbiter of your
destino!… destiny!

Bars 197–208 form a transition to Turandot’s outburst that rekindles her

spirit, so I employed a transitional passage that appears only in the Zuccoli
transcription. For the outburst itself (“I know your name”), sketch B13 is quite
developed, appearing in Gb major. Sketch Z3 shows an almost identical musical
passage, but in the key of G, a half-step higher. It is also possible, though, that
Puccini had just omitted the accidentals in Z3, and intended both to be in Gb.73
Further, the contrapuntal inner voices in Z3 are eighth notes, not the slower
quarter notes of B13. Because of the rush of emotion, I opted for the faster inner
voices of the former. Another difference between the sketches is that Z3 has the
text “nessuno mai avrà.” Apparently Puccini was considering this for earlier in the
finale.

[bars 209–257, sketches TdL4, B4, B8a, B15, B22, B8]

CALAF:1 CALAF:
(trasognato, in esaltazione ebbra) (dreamlike, in drunken exaltation)
Che m’importa la vita! What does life matter!
È pur bella la morte! Death is also beautiful!
1 Now that Calaf has revealed his
name, it now appears in the libretto and
original published score, in place of “the
unknown prince.”

73 This makes more sense tonally, since there is a move from what appears to be A minor
to a notated E natural. It would not be necessary to notate the natural, if actually coming from A
minor, so it is probably Ab minus the accidentals.
 TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
Non più il grido del popolo!… No more cried from the people!
Lo scherno!… the mockery!...
Non più umiliata e prona No longer humiliated and prone
la mia fronte cinta di corona!… My face encircled by a crown!...
So il tuo nome!… Il tuo nome!… I know your name! Your name!...
La mia gloria risplende! My glory shines!
CALAF: CALAF:
La mia gloria è il tuo amplesso! My glory is your embrace!
La mia vita è il tuo bacio! My life is your kiss!

TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
Odi! Squillan le trombe! È l’alba! È Listen! The trumpets are sounding!
l’alba! It’s Dawn! It’s dawn!
È l’ora della prova! It is time for the test!
CALAF: CALAF:
Non la temo! I don’t fear it!
Dolce morir così!… It’s sweet to die like this!...

TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
Nel cielo è luce! The skies are getting light!
Tramontaron le stelle! È la vittoria!… The stars are setting! It is victory!...
Il popolo s’addensa nella reggia… The people gather in the palace...
E so il tuo nome!… So il tuo And I know your name!...I know
nome!… your name!
CALAF: CALAF:
Il tuo sarà l’ultimo mio grido Yours will be my last cry of love!
d’amore!

TURANDOT: TURANDOT:
(ergendosi tutta, regalmente (standing completely regal and
dominatrice) dominating)
Tengo nella mia mano la tua vita! I hold your life in my hands!
Calaf!… Davanti al popolo, con Calaf! Come before the people
me!… with me!...

As is well known, the previously employed sketch, B13, is followed by

Puccini’s underlined notation “Then Tristan” [poi Tristano]. As Ashbrook and
Powers write:
 Alfano did not use this material in his first composition, nor in his
second, where all that is now left of the Princess’s originally rather
complex reaction is the twice-sung expression “so il tuo nome!” Of
the text to the Prince’s rejoinder to that reaction a version may be
seen even now in the current printed libretto: “Che m’importa la vita!
/ E’ pur bella la morte!” As Maehder has rightly observed [...] the idea
expressed here must account for the words Puccini wrote at the bottom
of the sketch: “Poi Tristano.”74

Because Wagner’s “Liebesruhe” motive is a probable source of Puccini’s

“Tristano,” I built this passage on rising iterations of that theme, accompanied
by the bird-like “uccellando” versions of sketch TdL4 (because dawn is about to
break). The “Liebesruhe” motive can be used as a variant of the previous theme
for “I know your name,” so the transition between the two was quite smooth.
At this moment, in which the mood shifts wildly, the two principal characters
have quite different emotions: she is triumphant (again), he is facing death
(again). Because Turandot’s realization of her restored power is growing, her text
is set to another major-third cycle that deliriously spins around major keys, using
music that originally appeared just before Act II/48, and in bars 52–55 of sketch
B1 for the finale (bars 54–57 of my version). At “my glory shines,” Turandot’s
melody becomes the Mo-li-hua, heard for the first time in Act I/19 sung by the
children, and reiterated throughout the opera. When Calaf sings “My glory is your
embrace!”, he repeats this melody because he is now following Turandot’s lead
dramatically.
The mood shifts suddenly at Turandot’s “Listen! The trumpets are sounding!”,
which clearly cues offstage trumpets. Sketch B4 has a rising fanfare-like arpeggio
figure; but the sketch also includes Puccini’s comment “prepare for two split”
[preparare a 2 spezzato]. There are many ways of interpreting this comment, but I
choose to read it as an indication for two groups of instruments, one offstage and
one onstage—which should also be in two different keys. Modeling this passage
on parts of Tosca’s Act II, the onstage world has a sustained pedal chord on G,
while the offstage world is in the Db major of the sketch—a tritone away. Also in
Tosca just after Act II/50, a musical sound is heard offstage, while Scarpia says
“Listen! It is the drum” [Odi? È il tamburo], accompanied by minimal orchestral
writing—a very similar moment, which I used as a model.
Sketch B8a indicates the court approaching, with instrumentation of
trumpets playing triads, piccolo, celesta, flute, carillon, bells, gongs, harp and
xylophone. But Calaf is not cowed by this, and his “I don’t fear it! It’s sweet to
die like this!” is set to the tonally unstable parallel chords of sketch B8a. Puccini
also specifies on this sketch, that it is for the “change of scene” and “prelude
to the dawn.” At the text, “The skies are getting light! The stars are setting! It
is victory!...” the score repeats the Mo-li-hua and the same chordal passage as
74 Ashbrook and Powers, Puccini’s “Turandot”, 139; Maehder, “Puccini’s Turandot,” 44.
bars 213ff. At the repeated text “I know your name” (bars 246ff.), the musical
ambience becomes whole-tone once more, suggesting the danger for Calaf that
lies ahead, as he sings “Yours will be my last cry of love!” using whole-tone sketch
B15, with added “birds” from sketch TdL4. His agitation is further enhanced here
by the double whole-tone scales of sketch TdL3.
When Turandot finally says Calaf’s name (bar 253ff.), her clear statement
is set easily to sketch B22’s simple rhythm. This sketch, however, also calls for
a “wave” [onda], which I interpreted to mean flowing arpeggios beneath the
main melody. Another possible interpretation could have been crescendos and
diminuendos of Wagnerian orchestral “waves.”

[bars 258–72, sketches B8, B23]

Cambiamento scena. Si avvia (Scene change. It begins toward

verso il fondo. Squillano più alte the back. The trumpets blare
le trombe. Il cielo ora è tutto more loudly. The sky now is
soffuso di luce. Voci sempre suffused with light. Voices, ever
più vicine si diffondono) closer, emanate.)
LE VOCI: THE VOICES:
O Divina! O Divine one!
Nella luce In the morning
mattutina light
che dolcezza what sweetness
si sprigiona emanates
dai giardini from the gardens
della Cina!… of China
(La scena si dissolve.) (The scene dissolves)

Sketch B8 is labeled “cambiamento scena,” so it clearly belongs here.

Puccini has indicated trumpets and bells, but at a louder dynamic than previously,
as the stage directions indicate. As a high register flourish, which also balances
Puccini’s indication of low register bells here, I have added sketch B23, speeding
up its rhythmic values to add to the intensity of the moment. The chorus enters
on “O Divina!” once more set to the Mo-li-hua, with a low pedal to build tension
toward the coming climactic moment.

IV. SCENE 2 Turandot and Calaf appear before court, Turandot says
Calaf’s name is Love, happy ending [mm. 273–343, a cabaletta
substitute?]
[bars 273–300, sketches B8, B23, Z4]
 Scena 2: (L’esterno del palazzo Scene 2: (The outside of the
imperiale, tutto bianco di marmi imperial palace, all white with
traforati, sui quali i riflessi rosei perforated marble, on which
dell’aurora s’accendono come the rosy reflection of the dawn
fiori. Sopra un’alta scala, al light up like flowers. Atop a high
centro della scena. L’imperatore staircase, at the center of the
circondato dalla corte, dai scene, the emperor surrounded
dignitari, dai sapienti, dai soldati. by the court, dignitaries, wise
Ai due lati del piazzale, in vasto men, soldiers. On both sides of
semicerchio, l’enorme folla che the apron, in a vast semicircle, the
acclama:) enormous crowd hails:)
LA FOLLA: THE CROWD:
Diecimila anni al nostro Ten thousand years to our
Imperatore! emperor!

A change of scene, as in Act II, requires a fairly extensive stretch of music

sans words. Puccini wrote in a letter of 21 November 1922 to librettist Simoni
that “during the duet the change must happen very slowly, keeping Turandot in
a fantastic light so that all watch her, and behind her, bit by bit, must vanish the
different aspects of the Chinese garden.”75 The Act III scene change begins
with sketch Z4, on which Puccini has written syncopated “fifths” [quinte] and
“murmur” [mormorio]. Parallel fifths were one of Puccini’s favored devices: one
need only think of the openings of Acts II and III of La bohème.76
In bars 285–93, I have added a stage direction for Ping, Pang, and Pong
to enter, in order to use sketch B14, with slightly altered rhythm, which recalls
their trio at Act II/10. In that scene they fondly recall their homes’ lakes, forests,
and gardens. Perhaps now they are hoping that they can finally return home, or
perhaps Puccini was suggesting a reference to the garden, which he mentioned
in the letter of 21 November 1922 cited previously. The chorus’s “Ten thousand
years” is set identically to the same passage in Act II, but in D major.

[bars 301–43, sketches B22/ Z5a/ B11/B11a/B18]

75 “Durante il duetto deve avvenire il cambiamento piano piano, tenendo in luce fantastica
Turandot che apporta tutti gli sguardi, e dietro essa via via debbono scomparire i diversi corredi
del giardino cinese.” Rescigno, “La nascita del libretto,” 53.
76 Puccini’s parallel fifths annoyed Eduard Hansick, Wagner’s nemesis: “In the most
diverse scenes arise columns of ascending and descending parallel fifths of such obtrusive
ugliness—preferably blared ‘marcatissimo’ by trumpets—that one asks oneself in vain what the
composer wanted to accomplish with these rude monstrosities?” Hanslick, Die moderne Oper,
81–83. Quoted in English translation in Groos and Park Giacomo Puccini “La bohème,” 134–35.
 (I tre ministri stendono a terra (The three ministers stretch out
un manto d’oro mentre Turandot a golden cloak on the ground,
ascende la scala. D’un tratto è while Turandot ascends the
il silenzio. E in quel silenzio la stairs. Suddenly there is silence.
Principessa esclama) And in that silence, the princess
TURANDOT: exclaims:)
O padre augusto… Ora conosco il TURANDOT:
nome O august father...Now I know the
dello straniero… name of the stranger...
(E fissando Calaf che è ai piedi (And looking at Calaf who is at the
della scalèa, finalmente, vinta, foot of the stair, finally, defeated,
mormora quasi in un sospiro murmurs in almost a very sweet
dolcissimo:) sigh:)
Il suo nome è… Amore! His name is...Love!

CALAF: CALAF:
(con un grido folle) (with a wild cry)
Amore! Love!
(E sale d’impeto la scala, e i due (And he impetuously climbs the
amanti si trovano avvinti in un stairs, and the two lovers find
abbraccio, perdutamente, mentre themselves locked in an embrace,
la folla tende le braccia, getta desperately, while the crowd
fiori, acclama gioiosamente) extend their arms, throw flowers,
[Turandot e Calaf scendono le joyously cheer.) [Then, Turandot
scale mano nella mano.] and Calaf descend the stairs hand
in hand.]

LA FOLLA: THE CROWD:

O sole!– Vita!– Eternità! O sun! — Life! — Eternity!
Luce del mondo è amore… Love is the light of the world...
Il tuo nome, o Principessa, è luce Your name, o Princess, is light.
È primavera… It is spring...
Principessa! – Gloria!– Amor! Princess! — Glory! — Love!

TURANDOT E CALAF: TURANDOT AND CALAF:

[Turandot e Calaf escono insieme.] [Turandot and Calaf exit together.]
[Amor! Amor!] [Love! Love!]

The rising whole-step melody of bars 301–6 is similar to the moment in Act
II/ 63, when Turandot also addresses her father, the emperor. In addition, a fast-
paced anapestic ostinato was added to suggest Turandot’s heartbeat, much as
Puccini did—and verbally described—in Minnie’s high stakes poker game in Act
II of La fanciulla del West.77 As Turandot tells her father “Now I know the name
of the stranger,” the orchestra plays sketch B22, which had earlier accompanied
her saying Calaf’s name for the first time, at bar 253. Therefore, even though the
princess does not say “Calaf” the orchestral narration hints at it. (In an earlier
version of the libretto, Turandot simply says “I don’t know.”78)
To represent the sudden silence that immediately ensues, the orchestral
accompaniment dissolves into a single sustained pitch (A)—a technique that
Puccini often uses to highlight a climactic dramatic moment.79 It also has the
practical benefit of allowing the pivotal sung words to be heard clearly. Calaf’s
disbelief and growing joy is suggested by rising augmented triads, followed by
sketch Z5a.80 This fairly complete sketch has four qualities that make it apt for
this moment. First, a quickly rising melodic line aurally suggests both Calaf’s
climbing up the stairs, and his rising spirits. Second, the bass line moves around
by descending (circle of) fifths topped by dominant seventh chords, which shows
an unstable yet expectant mood. Third, Puccini writes a fast anapestic ostinato
that again suggests heartbeats. Lastly, although the Turandot-type bitonality is
still present between the outer voices, it now can finally resolve to a unison Bb.
Bars 322–30 are the climax of the entire opera: the lovers finally embrace,
and the crowd cheers. For this momentous moment, sketch B11 (transposed to Eb
major from Db major) is perfect for “happy ending” music. A variant of the same
music, with slightly different inner voices, appears in sketch B11a, with Puccini’s
annotation “perhaps following duet in Db?”81
But the question arises: how can this theme be used for the final happy
ending, when Puccini wrote in a letter to librettist Adami that “make sure the
grand finale [is] in the meter of the tenor aria for the final [already] completed
phrase”?82 Puccini made his wishes doubly known in an early libretto annotation,
where he wrote: “meter tenor romanza second part / ‘Ma il mio mistero’“83 The
tenor solo mentioned is, of course, “Nessun dorma,” which is undoubtedly why
Alfano ended the opera with a reprise of the second part of that well-known aria.
The solution to this final enigma is that sketches B11 and B11a form a
counterpoint to the “Nessun dorma” (name) theme, and so they appear together
77 Puccini is quoted saying: “My heart was beating like the double basses in the card
scene,” at the premiere of Fanciulla at the Met Opera in 1910. Anon., “Great Welcome for New
Opera,” The New York Times, 11 December 1910, 1.
78 “Io non lo so.” Archivio Puccini, Torre del Lago, ms. V. 1.10.a.
79 See, for example, Turandot Act III/13, or Fanciulla, Act I/53.
80 Sketch Z5a has the annotation “detach for the great duet” [“stacco per duettone”].
81 “Seguito forse duetto in reb?”
82 “Vi raccomando il gran finale su metro dell’aria del tenore per la frase finale stabilita.”
Letter Puccini to Adami, 17 December 1923. Adami, ed., Epistolario, 187–88.
83 “Metro romanza tenore 2a parte / Ma il mio mistero etc.” Archivio Puccini, Torre del
Lago, V. 1.10.a.
in bars 322–30. After the chorus finishes triumphantly on the word “Love,” I
chose, for several reasons, to have Turandot and Calaf echo “Amor” quietly and
exit together. First, Puccini, in his final moments, usually focuses the audience’s
attention on the personal relationship, not the crowd: there are numerous
examples of this. Second, most of Puccini’s happy endings (and there are not
that many) have the romantic couple exiting together. One could think of the last
moments of Fanciulla or the end of Acts I of La bohème or Madama Butterfly,
for example. Following this, I repeat the opening motive, now played quietly and
finally resolved, as occurs in Wagner’s Tristan. As noted previously, Puccini’s own
version was described by Salvatore Orlando, confirming my choices: it ends like
Tristan, and the last bars are pianissimo.
Lastly, the finale needed an orchestral peroration, which Puccini called for
in the letter of 18 November 1923 cited previously. As Parker notes, criticizing
the Alfano ending, “I cannot think of a Puccinian example that features the choral
reprise of music first heard from a soloist; what is more, none of Puccini’s later
operas ends so simply—one thinks in particular of the gentle, ambiguous cases
of La fanciulla del West and La rondine.”84 Berio, on the other hand, heeded
Orlando’s testimony, looked at Puccini’s earlier models, and thus ends his finale
with a long pianissimo postlude. In my finale, from bar 339 to the end—after the
structural resolution to Eb major in bar 338—there are floating high pianissimo
chords that derive from Liu’s aria “Signore ascolta” in Act I/4/15—as if they are
Liù’s spirit returning in peaceful acceptance.
Is it possible, then, to solve the final riddle of Puccini’s Turandot and
determine the finale intended by the composer? We may never know with
certainty. But with the examination of previously unused autograph material, and
the process of model composition, we have come a bit closer.

84 Parker, “Berio’s Turandot,” 111.

APPENDIX:
Table of Puccini’s autograph sketches for Turandot, Act III finale

Berio Original Additional Musical incipits

numbering numbering sketches
(B has been (Z has been
added to added to those
these) sketches
retained by
Zuccoli; TdL
indicates extant
sketches at the
Museo Puccini
in Torre del
Lago)
B1 1r, 1v

B1 2r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B1 3v

B1 4r [4v
blank]

B1 9r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B1 9v

B1 10r

B1 10v
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B1 11r

B1 11v

B1a 20r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B2 5r

B2 5v
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B2 6r

B2 6v
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B2 7r

B2b 15r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B3 7r

B3 7v

B4 8r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B5 8v

B6 12v

B7 13r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B7 (from Zuccoli
transcription
only)

B7 (from Zuccoli
transcription
only)

B8 13v

B8a 15r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B9 14r

B10a 14r

B10b 14r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B10c 14r

B11 15v

B11a 19r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B12 16r

B13 17r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B13 (from Zuccoli
transcription
only)

B14 17v

B15 17v

B16 18r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B16a 18r

B17 18v

B18 19r

B19 21r
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
B20 22r

B21 22r

B22 23r

B23 23v
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
31.A.III.36.a Z1
(Schickling)

31.A.III.36.b Z2
(Schickling)

31.A.III.38.a Z3
(Schickling)
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
31.A.III.35.a Z4
(Schickling)

31.A.III.35.a Z5a
S.2
(Schickling)

31.A.III.35.a Z5b
S.2
(Schickling)
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
31.A.III.35.a Z6a
S.3
(Schickling)

31.A.III.35.a Z6b
S.3
(Schickling)

31.A.III.35.a Z7
S.4
(Schickling)

TdL1
Berio Original Additional Musical incipits
numbering numbering sketches
TdL2

TdL3

TdL4
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