Turandot | An essential guide to what to listen out for in Puccini's famous opera

[@MrQwerty88]

It is not pronounced 'TurandoT'. It is pronounced 'Turandò'. Proof is an interview with Rosa Raisa, who sang the role in the first season. She confirms that the cast, Puccini himself and the conductor Toscanini all called it 'Turandò'. People who work in the field should know. Listen to the proof: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2jaY6qMd9ConNU

[@Paolo8772]

I wouldn't conflate the bitonal chord of Turandot with the lydian music of Ping Pang an Pongs memories of home. The former is a minor triad in the bass with a major triad a semitone lower in the treble at the same time, denoting all that seams strange and barbaric about imperial Peking to the colonial white outsider; whereas the latter are two chords, the 2nd lydian, played separately, then again the same two chords one semitone lower, which denotes the sweet nostalgic memories of Ping Pang and Pong's respective homes and have nothing to do with the bitonal chord that opens all three acts (well, almost the beginning of the 1st act; a few seconds after the opera starts). The bitonal chord is also often associated with the execution motive, and in fact are played at the same time during the execution of the Prince of Persia. The execution motive; the three notes that repeat down through three octaves is dissonant, the bitonal chord which is even more dissonant, and both motives played at the same time are also atonal against each other as well as being both atonal within themselves respectively, but they both work to create the mood Puccini was trying to convey. It was Puccini's new "tonal trick" toy. In Fanciulla was the whole tone scale; in Turandot was this bitonal chord, leading tonality further away form traditional stability than he'd taken it before.