NESSUN DORMA

Nessun Dorma, the Latin phrase for “None Shall Sleep Tonight” is a highly popular classical opera song and is considered by many to be Puccini’s magnum opus. I first heard the song a long time ago at near the ending of the movie, “The Mirror has Two Faces” and then again during the climax – resolution phase of the movie “The Sum of All Fears”. I was since then smitten by the song and was mesmerized by the elegance and the grandeur of the music. However, there was a problem. I never knew the title of the song and for the longest time possible, I was searching for that mesmerizing music with not much of a success until recently when I “discovered” the music’s title rather accidentally. I was watching TV sometime ago and I came across Paul Potts and to my excitement, he was singing Nessun Dorma then as his award winning song. From there, I scoured the net, looking up for the name Paul Potts and finally discovered the music that captivated me for so long and last Sunday, I finally bought a copy for myself. Nessun Dorma based on my research over the internet (well, mostly at Wikipedia) is the one of the climatic song written by Puccini for his last play, Turandot. Turandot is a play about the story of a cold hearted “Chinese” princess who finally discovered love. Princess Turandot (the name is actually Persian in origin rather than Chinese but the play cast Turandot as a Chinese princess) is a strong willed and a cold hearted woman who vowed to never submit to any man however, her father, the emperor Altun wanted Turandot to get married at the soonest possible time. Eventually, Turandot relented to her father’s wishes on one condition, that the suitor should answer her 3 riddles. Turandot agreed to marry the suitor who will able to answer all the three riddles however, if the suitor failed to answer the riddles, he would be beheaded. And so, many young men came forth and tried to win the hand of Turandot but only to lose their heads. The last of these was a prince of Persia, he too failed at his task and was sent to meet his fate and it is here where the play begins. In midst of the commotion of the impending execution, a young wanderer came forth to see for himself what the commotion is all about and he chanced upon a blind old man with a slave girl who was shoved to the ground by the unruly crowd. The blind old man happened to be his father, himself a former prince and the slave girl was named Liu. Quickly, the young prince came to help up his father and father and son were rejoiced to have met up again. During the reunion, the young prince however, forbade his father to call out his name in public for fear of political persecution because of his past political ties. It is during this time when the gathered crowd witnessing the execution begged loudly for mercy for the unlucky Persian prince. In the middle of the clamor, Princess Turandot appeared in the balcony of her palace and ordered the execution to proceed showing neither mercy nor remorse (and witnessing for herself the execution). It is at this moment when our young prince caught a glimpse of this terrifying beauty of a princess and he immediately fell in love (call it love at first sight). And in his dazzled state, the young prince rushed to the palace door and strike at the gong, 3 times announcing to the world that he has taken up the challenge and at the same time, declaring his love for the cold – hearted princess. The crowd was shocked to hear the sound of the gong and equally shocked by the audacious stupidity of the young prince. At any rate, the palace door opened and three ministers, Ping, Pang, and Pong came to dissuade the young prince to give up his quest but to no avail and therefore, the three ministers led the young romantic to the court chamber to meet either his destiny or his doom. At the court, the young prince met both the emperor and the princess and proceeded to answer the 3 deadly riddles. The first riddle asked by the princess was, “What is born each night and dies each dawn?” To this riddle, the young prince easily answered, “Hope”. Unnerved, the princess presented her second riddle, “What flickers red and warm like flame but is not fire?” Now, the second riddle was rather difficult but nevertheless, the young prince prevailed after giving some thought for he gave the correct answer, Blood. Now, the princess was badly shaken and was rather angry when the crowd cheered for the young prince for now she presented her third and final and perhaps the most difficult riddle. “What is like ice but burns like fire?” It may seemed though that the princess has finally claimed another poor victim and our young prince has failed like those before him for he was unable to answer the question for a long time and then, just then the prince finally figured it out. He shouted his answer, “Turandot”! Shocked by the turn of events, Turandot fell on hers knees and pleaded with her father not to allow the marriage to take place but the emperor has spoken before and his word is the law of the land and he is bound to honor it. Seeing this, the young prince put forth a proposal to the princess. If the princess could answer by tomorrow morning the one riddle that the young prince would ask, the young prince would be willing to die but if the princess failed to provide the correct answer to the riddle, then she is bound to marry the young prince. Seeing her chance, Turandot agrees to the proposal and asked for the riddle, to which the young prince asked “What is my name?” In an instant, everyone was dumbfounded for nobody knew who the young stranger is. That night as the stranger was ushered to his quarters, the Princess Turandot sent out her guards with this explicit instruction, “None Shall Tonight until they find out what the stranger’s name is, if they fail by tomorrow morning, they shall all be killed.” It is in this context that our hero witnessing the frantic acts of desperation, that he sang “Nessun Dorma”. Soon afterwards, Ping, Pang, and Pong came to the chamber of our hero and offered him a bribe and asked him to leave during the night and so as to avoid the inevitable come morning but our hero flatly refuses the offer. It is not long afterwards that the guards brought in the blind old man and his slave for questioning since somebody have pointed out that the old man was seen conversing with the young prince. Running out of time and patience, Turandot have both of them tortured to reveal the identity of the stranger but none of them spilled the beans until Liu the slave girl in order to save her master and as well as repay the young prince for having smiled at her once (Liu is madly in love with the young prince) confessed to know the true name of the stranger. Liu told the princess that his name is “Love” and drove a dagger into her heart and killed herself. By this selfless act, Liu, now forever silent took the secret to her grave. The young prince on hearing the death of Liu was so enrage by the cruelty and the cold heartedness of the princess rebuked Turandot. However, he was also madly in love with the heartless princess that he gave her a kiss and tried to convince her of his true love for her. And in an act of love, he revealed to her, “My name is Calaf, son of Timur”. In this stroke of either ingenuity or stupidity, the young prince Calaf has placed himself in the hands of the princess for her to destroy or save. The next morning, the emperor Altun summoned the princess and asked her if she knew the answer to the stranger’s riddle and to which the princess replied, “yes”! “And what is his name?” The emperor demanded. Guess what the princess answered? “His name is Love”, that was the princess’ answer. Both Turandot and Calaf kissed and they eventually got married and lived happily ever after (as always the case in story – telling). Well, personally I think the storyline is quite bizarre (but I don’t know if the 19th century audience would find it bizarre as well or simply find it to their liking; I think it’s more to their liking). Then again, that’s the beauty of classical music. I mean, unlike modern pop music, which no one could barely “get” the message of the songs, classical music has an entire back story to rest on, which makes the song more enjoyable and entertaining. Enough said and speaking of Paul Potts, the guy is really one lucky Brit. Paul Potts used to be a phone salesman and rode a bike to work (based on what I heard) but he took his chance, his one shot at his dream and made it. He joined the reality show, “Britain Got Talent” (similar to American Idol and Simon sits as one of the judges there as well) and won with his rendition of Nessun Dorma. He became an overnight sensation and a darling in the internet circuit with his performances being shown in YouTube. Since then, he had begun his recording career and his album has become a certified platinum hit (if I remembered correctly). Furthermore, he also went on a world tour and last October 8, he came to town to perform his piece. I was never a music guy and I never dig going to concerts but in this case, I really liked to watch him sing. I really liked his rendition of Nessun Dorma. Unfortunately though, I wasn’t able to watch Paul Pott’s performance last Wednesday for no particular reason at all except for that I don’t have a date…….. (At least, Calaf has Turandot to listen to him sing).

Nessun Dorma

By Giacomo Puccini

Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!

Tu pure, o, Principessa,

nella tua fredda stanza,

guardi le stelleche tremano d'amoree di speranza.

Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,

il nome mio nessun saprà!

No, no, sulla tua bocca lo diròquando la luce splenderà!

Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzioche ti fa mia!

(Il nome suo nessun saprà!...e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)

Dilegua, o notte!

Tramontate, stelle!

Tramontate, stelle!

All'alba vincerò!

vincerò, vincerò!

Translation:
Nobody shall sleep!... Nobody shall sleep!

Even you, o Princess, in your cold room,

watch the stars, that tremble with love and with hope.

But my secret is hidden within me,my name no one shall know...

No!...No!... On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.

And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!...

(No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.)

Vanish, o night! Set, stars! Set, stars!

At dawn, I will win!

I will win! I will win!