Gozzi and his Turandot
Though his dramas are rarely performed today, Carlo Gozzi's works live in operas by Puccini, Wagner, Henze and Prokofiev. Gozzi (1720 ? 1806) was born to a proud Venetian noble family that had fallen on hard times ? two thirds of their hereditary villa, which once included a small theater, had been sold brick by brick in order to raise more ill-spent capital. His first play, The Love for Three Oranges, was intended to be his only opus, but its enormous popularity lead to further works. This pursuit quickly put him into a theatrical imbroglio with fellow playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793), a noted dramatist and librettist (of special interest is his play Don Giovanni Tenorio, which served to inspire parts of Mozart's opera by the same name). Their point of contention was the 16 th -century Italian commedia dell'arte, an improvised comedy with stock characters, predictable situations and plenty of slapstick and vulgarity. Commedia dell'arte was in decline by the 18 th century, but Goldoni hoped to give it new life by eliminating much of the buffoonery and introduce a new realism, with the actors conforming to predetermined text instead of improvisation, and requiring the largely middle-class audience to face its own vices and virtues. Gozzi preferred a more traditional approach ? though also forcing his characters to adhere to specific lines, he interwove the traditional masked characters into his own world of fantasy and fable. Gozzi believed he could attract large audiences with frivolously titled, unrealistic plots.
He was right ? Gozzi's plays were exceedingly popular, forcing Goldoni to leave Venice and seek his fortune elsewhere. Though the latter would achieve greater posterity in literary history, Gozzi's star continued to rise beyond the Italian border. With the onset of Romanticism, his dramas were of particular interest to the German precursors of the movement. Schiller would make a translation/adaptation of Turandot to be directed by Goethe (Schiller's version would later be translated back into Italian by Andrea Maffei, Verdi's good friend and sometimes collaborator). Gozzi's dark-edged fantasy also fueled the imagination of E. T. A. Hoffmann, who was not only a writer but also a composer of some merit, as well as the similarly morose American poet Edgar Allen Poe, who referred to Gozzi's Il corvo when he wrote The Raven. Wagner adapted La donna serpente to become his early opera Die Feen, and Puccini's first opera, Le villi, owns a debt of gratitude to the playwright as well. Interest in Gozzi would continue into the 20 th century, with a legendary production of Turandot by Max Reinhardt ( Berlin , 1911), Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges ( Chicago , 1921) and Henze's König Hirsch (based on The Stag King; Berlin , 1956). Turandot became the most frequently adapted of Gozzi's fables, set five times during the 19 th century, then by Busoni in 1917, before Puccini would get his hands on it.
Naturally Gozzi's Turandot is a far more complicated matter than Puccini's opera, incorporating many more characters and subsidiary plots. The central themes remain ? the idea of a life-threatening challenge-by-riddle and the overall ?battle of the sexes? ? and can trace their lineage back to Greek mythology. We recall Oedipus's encounter with the Sphinx before the gates of Thebes and the victim-devouring monster's seemingly unsolvable three-part riddle (?What walks on four feet in the morning, on two at midday and on three in the evening??). Oedipus offers up the correct answer (?Man?) which gains him an easy victory and the rule of Thebes (and a host of other problems, but that's another opera). Man pitted against Woman goes back to the creation of the Amazon state by way of conquest by invading and ravaging marauders. Queen Tanais is forced to marry the Ethiopian King Vexoris, but she manages to murder him on their wedding night. Her bold act incites a rebellion, and the victorious Amazons institute an all-female rule. Tanais's second spouse can only be a man who bests her on the battlefield.
Gozzi knew of these precedents but more likely turned to the Far East for inspiration (as he often did). Turandot may be of Chinese lore, but the play draws its specifics from such titles as The Travels of Marco Polo and The Arabian Nights. Like the Amazons, Polo's adventures include a princess committed to marrying the unlikely suitor who could prove her equal on the battlefield, and among Scheherezade's 1,001 stories is one appropriately titled ?Wisdom under the Severed Heads.? Here the poor prince must endure a day-long battery of riddles (which he aptly answers) and gains the advantage when the princess takes a moment to rest her voice. His enigma-in-return proves unsolvable, and she readily agrees to marry him.
This is hardly the case with Gozzi's Turandot. Instead of Puccini's myth-like, ice-hearted ?daughter of heaven? we find a very real person, proud of her intelligence, badly spoiled by her father and frustrated by the subservient role required of women. Her brain is her only weapon. When Calaf answers her riddles correctly, she pouts and whines, claiming that she had not had sufficient time to prepare really difficult ones since the unfortunate Prince of Samarkand has only just received his death sentence. Tired by the wars the savage pact has wrought, Emperor Altoum holds strong in light of his daughter's tantrum. Even after Calaf's offer of his own riddle ? that of his unknown name ? Altoum encourages her to accept his hand rather than face another public humiliation. The drama becomes very much about Turandot's pride rather than her fear of intimacy, and rightly so ? she's smart enough to author a large body of impossible riddles, outwitting 99 noble princes to date.
We see a very human side of Turandot as she uses tricks and cunning to wrangle out of her desperate situation and her slave, Adelma, becomes a useful pawn in getting to the ultimate goal. Hardly a sensitive, caring Liù-type, Adelma has her own story to tell. She herself had once been a princess but was captured after her father fought an ill-conceived war against Altoum ? apparently her brother had been one of the 99 foolish enough to seek Turandot's hand. Forced to serve Turandot she is naturally embittered, but the situation is complicated further when she recognizes Calaf as a man from the past ? he had been employed as her gardener during his exile. Now that Adelma knows he's of royal blood she regrets not having pursued her earlier attraction. Unfortunately she can't quite remember his name. ?
Adelma tries to convince Calaf that running away with her is his best option, but he remains smitten with Turandot's visage and blatantly uninterested in Adelma. She becomes irate and manages to trick Calaf's name out of him, which she then reveals to Turandot. At the moment of reckoning, Turandot at first pretends that she has lost the battle but without warning throws her hollow victory in Calaf's face. When he desperately tries to stab himself, her emotions do a complete turnaround ? moved by his noble act, she suddenly agrees to the marriage. Adelma's hopes are now vanquished, and she takes a turn with the dagger but is stopped by Calaf, who requests that his new father-in-law restore her kingdom. The ending is a tidy one, with Turandot turning to the audience, begging the pardon of the male sex.
Courtesy of Minnesota Opera
