nessun dorma (none shall sleep)

Yesterday night I saw the Studio Festi perform an aerial ballet at the Night Festival in front of the Singapore National Museum, and I was blown away. There is simply nothing like seeing dancers do ballet 50 feet up the air against the backdrop of Italian opera. Wow, simply amazing. Started out with a couple dancing, there were some segments were they rolled a lighted ball down the Stamford road and a ballet dance was suspended inside. They also paraded 10 giant ballerinas 20 feet high and they lined up the road and danced.

They ended the show with two giant Helium balls which were painted to reflect the sun and the moon, and each carried a goddess ballerina flying and dancing in the air, sometimes going down to touch people. Wow. It felt like mythology was alive, and you could reach up and touch the goddess. It was fantastic. And it was all done by modern day puppeteers so to speak running around and pulling on ropes, working around the pulleys. They used no motors, no machines, just the coordination of the ballet dancing in the air and the choreographed movement of the crew below.

 

But this has got to be my favorite. Against what I consider to be the most beautiful arias of all time “Nessun Dorma”, they airlifted what was a ship, and a mermaid goddess led it to moonlight. They even made it rain towards the last part of the song. It was so romantic. I think it’s magical when art, music, and science combine to give us the most thought-provoking, and sensational appreciation of human imagination. This is after all what makes us great.

 

 

 

 

 

Some background on Nessun Dorma (lifted from Wikipedia):

Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep) is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot, and is one of the best known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, Il principe ignoto (The unknown prince), who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. However, any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles. If he fails, he will be beheaded.

In the previous act, Calaf has correctly answered the three riddles put to all of Princess Turandot's prospective suitors. Nevertheless, she recoils at the thought of marriage to him. Calaf offers her another chance by challenging her to guess his name by dawn. (As he kneels before her, the 'Nessun Dorma' theme makes a first appearance, to his words Il mio nome non sai!.) If she does so, she can execute him, but if she does not, she must marry him. The cruel and emotionally cold princess then decrees that none of her subjects is to sleep that night until his name is discovered. If they fail, all will be killed.

As the final act opens, it is now night. Calaf is alone in the moonlit palace gardens. In the distance he hears Turandot's heralds proclaiming her command. His aria begins with an echo of their cry and a reflection on Princess Turandot:

"Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! Tu pure, o Principessa, nella tua fredda stanza, guardi le stelle che tremano d'amore, e di speranza!"

("None shall sleep! None shall sleep! Even you, o Princess, in your cold bedroom, watch the stars that tremble with love and with hope")

 

"Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me; il nome mio nessun saprà! No, No! Sulla tua bocca lo dirò quando la luce splenderà!"

("But my secret is hidden within me; none will know my name! No, no! On your mouth I will say it when the light shines!")

 

"Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio che ti fa mia!"

("And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!")

Just before the climactic end of the aria, a chorus of women is heard singing in the distance:

"Il nome suo nessun saprà... E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir!"

("No one will know his name... and we will have to, alas, die, die!")

Calaf, now certain of victory, sings:

"Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All'alba vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!"

("Vanish, o night! Set, stars! Set, stars! At daybreak I shall win! I shall win! I shall win!")