< One of opera's greatest hits gets a new and happy ending in Washington

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

This Saturday night, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., premieres a new ending for one of the world's most famous operas, "Turandot." The composer, Giacomo Puccini, died shortly before finishing his masterpiece, leaving just musical sketches for the ending. So one of his students filled out the score after his death. This year, the copyright expires, 100 years after the composer's death, so the Washington National Opera has commissioned a new ending. We have an investigative report from Nina Totenberg, NPR's legal affairs and opera correspondent.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: "Turandot" is one of the world's most lush and luscious operas, music so romantic that its tenor aria "Nessun Dorma" may well be the most famous of all time.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "TURANDOT")

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (Singing in Italian).

TOTENBERG: But "Turandot's" storyline is probably the most ridiculous in all of opera. Chinese Princess Turandot has declared that no man will possess her until he can answer three riddles. Princes come from far and wide, but when they fail, they're executed until Calaf, a disguised prince from a vanquished land, succeeds. Turandot is horrified, killing and torturing people to find out who he is. But when he kisses her, she surrenders, declaring that she now knows the stranger's name. It is love.

FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO: I've always been frustrated by the ending.

TOTENBERG: Francesca Zambello is the artistic director of the Washington National Opera.

ZAMBELLO: I felt like Puccini gave us amazing women in all of his operas. The conclusion might be death, but usually the death is a kind of triumph, whether it's "Tosca" or "Butterfly."

TOTENBERG: As she observes, none of those women's modernity or independence is present in the traditional "Turandot" ending.

ZAMBELLO: He kisses her, and she's like, OK, fine, I'll do whatever you want.

TOTENBERG: Zambello wanted something different, to correct the Asian stereotypes in the work and to portray Turandot as a leader. To do that, she commissioned two Chinese Americans to create a different ending. For the music, she chose Grammy Award-winning composer Christopher Tin and for the libretto, playwright Susan Soon He Stanton, who won an Emmy for her work on TV's "Succession." In explaining Turandot, the duo sought to emphasize the reason for Turandot's hostility to men. She believes she's avenging the abduction and killing of her great female ancestor and her own subsequent violation during an attack on the palace. This is Stanton's first attempt at writing words for opera.

SUSAN SOON HE STANTON: So I wrote it out kind of, like, one huge scene. And Francesca said, OK, that would - just this one scene that you've written by itself would probably take over two hours just to sing it. You know, every sentence takes time in opera.

TOTENBERG: For composer Tin, the task was perhaps even more delicate. He wanted to use as many of Puccini's musical sketches as possible for the ending.

CHRISTOPHER TIN: But that said, I also don't want to slavishly try to impersonate Puccini because nobody wants to hear second-rate Puccini, but maybe somebody might want to hear first-rate Christopher Tin.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "TURANDOT")

TOTENBERG: The 18-minute new ending does, in fact, reprise some of the themes heard in the earlier parts of the opera.

TIN: Sometimes in very subtle ways. Sometimes in clever ways, like I'll take a Puccini melody, and I'll actually play it upside down. I did this to anchor my ending as much as possible to his 2 1/2 acts to make the whole thing as satisfactory and complete of a musical experience as possible.

TOTENBERG: Listen here for the echo of "Nessun Dorma."

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "TURANDOT")

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #1: (Singing in Italian).

TOTENBERG: Tin says he set aside four months without any other work to devote to this project.

TIN: The reason I jumped into this commission without hesitation was the fact that I like to write hummable melodies. And that's not exactly in vogue or hasn't been in vogue in classical music for a little while.

TOTENBERG: It isn't even in vogue on Broadway.

TIN: It's kind of true, right? And to me, if you've come up with a great melody, boy, you've done 80% of the work right there. A great tune lasts forever.

TOTENBERG: For Stanton, the commission was a great opportunity to right the wrongs of Asian stereotypes.

STANTON: This is our real chance - especially we're both Chinese American artists - of being able to be a part of this conversation. And so I think it was a huge responsibility.

TOTENBERG: For example, the characters of Ping, Pang and Pong are instead called by the ministerial titles that Puccini gave them. In the last analysis, though, the ending represents something of a complete U-turn for both main characters - not just Turandot but Calaf, too.

TIN: Earlier in the opera, he's singing "Nessun Dorma," in a moment of toxic masculinity in a way. He's won. He knows. He's gloating. China is miserable. You know, this is his victory lap. (Singing) My name is Calaf, son of Timur. You have my name. Now my life is in your hands. Now he's the guy who believes that love is the thing that you need to be willing to die for and sacrifice your own life for.

TOTENBERG: And Turandot - Calaf persuades her not to be a vengeful princess, but a loving and forgiving one. If all this sounds like a fairytale, it is.

TIN: To me, you have to stay in this fairytale world in order to make this work. A fairytale where the two primary lovers do not actually fall in love at the end is not a fairytale that I want to tell my daughter. And so our task was, how do you get to that happy ending, especially given how ridiculous a lot of the plot points in the whole preceding 2 1/2 acts are?

TOTENBERG: And ridiculous or not, it's glorious.

Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "TURANDOT")

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #2: (Singing in Italian).

UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST #3: (Singing in Italian).

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