PLOT

ACT I

In a moment they will part: she will leave without giving him a chance or hope. Calàf finds himself alone. He sets out on an inward, oneiric journey, during which he strives to understand the situation and overcome his fears. The mysterious Mandarin announces the rules of the game: Turandot shall marry the one who can solve her three riddles. Whoever fails to provide the answers, shall die. The preparations for the execution begin. The inhabitants of the dreamlike city commence their ceremony, in which their extreme passions become confused, ranging from ferocity to pity for Calàf.

Suddenly there appears his long lost father, tended by the gentle, caring Liù, disturbingly similar to Calàf’s lover. Both Calàf and his father are exiles on the strange territory defined by Turandot. Liù, who is in love with Calàf, is ready for every sacrifice, only because he once smiled at her. Meanwhile, the ritual of execution is gathering pace. It will have its culmination in the long awaited appearance of Turandot. Amongst the crowd’s cries for mercy for the condemned, Calàf curses her. He begins to understand that the dazzling ceremony of death concerns none other than him in the first place. When he sees Turandot passing the sentence condemning him, he will ultimately lose his head over her.

Driven by fatal desire, Calàf thinks of nothing else than Turandot. Against his father’s will and in spite of Liù’s pleadings, as well as the warnings of the three transvestites: Ping, Pong and Pang, he wants to challenge her. Those three safely camouflaged effeminate men assure him that Turandot is not so extraordinary at all. A person like Turandot does not really exist. Her splendour is merely a delusion of desire. Nevertheless, Calàf enters the lethal game. A cabaret of dangerous riddles awaits him – La Luna. The spectres of beheaded men entice him to face Turandot. Despite the words of caution, the tears shed by Liù and his father, and the ominous prophecies, Calàf decides to try and solve the riddles.

ACT II

The dreamlike journey of Calàf continues. The masters of ceremony – Ping, Pong and Pang are lazily preparing themselves for various possible turns of events. They plan both the wedding and funeral of Calàf. They wish that the stream of death would finally cease, they debate the hidden desires of Turandot, who surely for some time must have been longing for a relationship with a man. They wish they could return to their old lives, however, for the time being they have to remain involved in these deadly practices, even when the condemned stir tenderness in them. Their emotions oscillate between compassion and cruelty, as the whole of Turandot’s world.

Once they are gone, the solitary journey of Calàf begins. First a little girl appears on his way, a little girl who has been hurt. Then the Emperor, the Lord of Heaven, Turandot’s father – a helpless old man who tries to dissuade another of his daughter’s victims. He wants no more blood. Yet Calàf has to put himself to the test.

It is then that Turandot makes her appearance. She speaks in the language of riddles. Perhaps she can speak in no other way. She speaks of rape that was committed by a man in her kingdom in the past. And of vengeance, which in that moment she swore against all men. This is why she asks her riddles.

‘What is it, that never fades away?’ – ‘It is hope.’
‘What is it, that circulates in me?’ – ‘It is blood.’
‘Who is the one, that suffers so?’ – ‘It is you, Turandot.’

The three riddles are the three stages of identification of the state that Turandot is in. Calàf empathically solves all of them, giving the right answer to the poetically phrased questions. However, in spite of his victory Turandot still refuses to give in, and breaks the rules of the contest. Yet Calàf desires a loving Turandot, not one forced into a relationship. Therefore, he proposes his own riddle, asking her for his name, and once more putting his life at stake.

ACT III

Turandot has lost control over herself and the situation. No one sleeps that night. Calàf is sure of his victory. Ping, Pang and Pong try to bribe him so that he would renounce his prize. The castrating power of Turandot is now a danger not only to the men in love with her. Yet Calàf discards the temptation, he wants all or nothing at all.

Calàf’s father and Liù are held captive. In Calàf’s and Turandot’s presence Liù is tortured, but she will not betray his name, the name of the man she loves. On the contrary, she dies for him. She commits suicide in the name of love, displacing her own feelings in favour of Turandot. Everyone feels the significance of this sacrifice and discerns a whole new aspect of love full of dedication.

At last Calàf and Turandot meet. She returns. She still does not want to give herself to him, even though her icy essence is melting away. She treats the readiness to receive love as dishonour, as surrender. Even the light of dawn that overcomes the lunar chill of the city does not put her at ease. In the end Calàf reveals his name. Along with that secret he offers his life to her. Even though the victory is in her hand, Turandot, at last happy, announces his name to the world – it is Love.