Episode 009: Turandot with Kevin Ng

Happy Pride and World Cup month, here’s an unlikely football (soccer) anthem and the sapphic story behind it. Unfortunately, the composer who got ahold of this story doesn’t believe in lesbians, so the soprano marries the tenor at the end. Music and culture writer Kevin Ng joins us to dive head-first into Puccini’s final — and famously unfinishable — opera, Turandot, which had its posthumous premiere 100 years ago in 1926.

Additional topics include: Lorena Bobbitt, castration, Freud, fascism, and T-shirt cannons.

Follow Kevin on Instagram at @_kevinwng and on Bluesky at @kevinng.bsky.social.

Read Kevin’s NYT piece on the latest attempt at constructing an ending for Turandot.

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Simon says:

“True, there are some tiresome stretches (something much, one feels, of the philosopher-politicians Ping, Pang, and Pong); but if he had lived not only to complete the work but to revise it, it might well have achieved general popularity along with critical respect.”

(100 Great Operas. and Their Stories)

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Turandot: The story

• Act I

• Act II

• Act III

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Recordings cited

• Sondra Radvanovsky, Jonas Kaufmann, Ermonela Jaho, Antonio Pappano: Turandot (Warner Classics, 2023)

• Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Montserrat Caballé, Zubin Mehta: Turandot (Decca, 1972)

• Maria Callas, Eugenio Fernandi, Tullio Serafin: Turandot (Warner Classics, 1957)

• Angela Gheorghiu: Puccini (Warner Classics, 2005)

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Further reading

• Mosco Carner, et. al.: Turandot (English National Opera Guides; 1984)

• Patricia Juliana Smith, Corrine Blackmer: En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera (1995)

• Giacomo Puccini: Letters (2013 ed.)

• Carlo Gozzi: Turandot, Princess of China (2022 ed.)

• William Ashbrook, Harold Powers: Puccini’s Turandot: The End of the Great Tradition (1991)

• Mosco Carner: Puccini: A Critical Biography (2023 ed.)

• Julian Budden: Puccini: His Life and Works (2005)

• William Berger: Puccini Without Excuses (2005)

• Arman Schwartz and Emanuele Senici (eds.): Puccini and His World (2016)

• Catherine Clément (Betsy Wing, trans.): Opera, or the Undoing of Women (1988)

• Simonetta Puccini & William Weaver: The Puccini Companion (1962)

• Charles Osborne: The Complete Operas of Puccini (1983)

• William Ashbrook: The Operas of Puccini (1985)

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Playlist

“Popolo di Pekino!”

AccaAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / 2023

“Gira la cote! … Perchè tara la luna?”

Teatro la Fenice / 2019

“O giovinetto”

Brian Jagde, Opéra National de Paris / 2024

(Robert Wilson staging)

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“Signore, ascolta”

Leona Mitchell / 1988

“Non piangere, Liù”

Franco Corelli / 1958

“Ah, per l’ultima volta!”

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / 2023

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Act II Procession

The Metropolitan Opera / 2016

(Zeffirelli staging)

“In questa reggia”

Asmik Grigorian / 2023

“Straniero, ascolta… Figlio del cielo” (riddle scene and aftermath)

Sondra Radvanovsky / 2023

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“Nessun dorma”

Yonghoon Lee / 2023

“Nessun dorma”

Aretha Franklin / 1998

“Tanto amore segreto”

Yana Kleyn / 2013

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“Tu che di gel sei cinta”

Angela Gheorghiu / 2001

“Principessa di morte!”

Lise Lindstrom, Roy Cornelius Smith / 2011

Finale (Alfano)

The Metropolitan Opera / 2009

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Finale (Berio)

Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Riccardo Chailly / 2004

Finale (Tin)

Christine Goerke, Clay Hilley / 2026

Violin Fantasy on Puccini’s Turandot

Vanessa Mae / 1997

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