Another one bites the dust.

So, I bought one of my favorite operas, Turandot, on Friday. It's pretty scratched, which usually doesn't bother me at all, but this time it did. I suppose it has to do with the type of music on the record. For example, on a live Blue Oyster Cult album, there's already lots of background noise. Compounded with the fact that it's a very rocking rock band, the static is barely heard. But in an opera, there are many pauses, soft refrains and background choral verses. Basically, it's tres annoying!



Interesting facts about Turandot:
-This opera is always credited to Puccini, but did you know that he didn't write the whole thing? Puccini was dying of brain cancer while Turandot was being written. Knowing he would soon meet his demise, he left specific instructions on who he wanted to complete the opera, should he die before it was finished. After his death, though, his son decided the composer his father had chosen was not good enough! After lots of discussion among family and peers, Franco Alfano was chosen. He completed the ending (which many critics say is weak & predictable) and a few other blank spots in the piece.

-The name, (and elements of the story) as chosen by Giacamo Puccini himself, is a hand-me-down character in a book of mythology. But both the fact that it has been changed through time and that the opera's composer was Italian have caused confusion over its pronunciation. Anyone who knows the root of the word will tell you that the T at the end must be pronounced. Puccini's granddaughter, the current overseer of his estate, says it is absolutely "Turan-dot," but singers who were directed by Puccini himself were always adamant that he named it "Turan-dough." Of course, following Italian phonetics, this would be accurate.