Anyone with an ear for classical music will surely know Pavarotti’s Aria “Nessun Dorma” (see video below). Its incredible and he does it with seemingly so much ease. However, this is about the story behind the Aria. The story of of Princess Turandot.
Calaf is a close admirer who wants to marry the Princess. However, as with all princesses, she’s hard to get. So Calaf puts her to a challenge that if she can correctly guess his name, then she can go ahead and kill him. However, if she doesn’t, then she will have to marry her.
Calaf is obviously a risk taking Fisi, especially given that a princess has the power to summon everyone in the Kingdom to help in guessing Calaf’s name; which is exactly what she does. She orders that no one in the entire Kingdom will sleep (Nessun…Dorma) until they come up with Calaf’s correct name and if they fail, she shall order the entire Kingdom killed!
However, Calaf has balls of steel and although his life depends on the entire Kingdom not correctly guessing his name, he still goes ahead to tell the princess that only he will tell it to her on her mouth when the morning comes.
But here’s a kicker, although the entire Kingdom is not he verge of death because they canna tell Calaf’s true name, they still go ahead (the choir) to sing that “No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.”
Hehe the bigger question, however, is why would anyone want to marry such a maniac princess like Turandot who can order everyone killed for something as mundane as not correctly guessing one person’s name.
Anyways here’s Pavarotti with one of my favorite Arias