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There are ten of the most popular operas that are still being played today. They satirize the authority, praise the pursuit of freedom, applause friendship, or present a fantasy. But they have one thing in common: that is eulogizing pure love.
西方歌剧历史悠久，这里选取今天仍在上演、经久不衰的十部作品，它们或讽刺权贵，或畅想自由，或赞美友谊，或展现魔幻奇特的世界。不管怎样，它们都有一个共同的特点，那就是歌颂纯真的爱情。
Don Giovanni is a legendary, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors. Among the best known works about this character today are Molière's play Dom Juan ou le Festin de pierre (1665) and Byron's epic poem Don Juan (1821) and Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (1787).
Don Giovanni, a young, arrogant, sexually promiscuous nobleman in Medieval Spain, abuses and outrages everyone else in the cast, until he encounters something he cannot kill, beat up, dodge, or outwit. He seduces a lot of women by his charm. One day a murdered man accepts an insolent invitation to banquet with his murderer, appearing at the feast and dragging him down to hell.
It is well known that the overture of Don Giovanni was written almost on the eve of the first performance. He began to compose about midnight. Whenever he grew sleepy, his wife, who was by his side, entertained him with stories to keep him awake. It is said that it took him but three hours to produce this overture. The overture consists of an introduction which reproduces the scene of the banquet with a solemn and dark atmosphere, indicating the tragic ending. It is followed by an allegro which characterizes the impetuous, pleasure-seeking Don, oblivious to consequences as if he is whistling. It reproduces the dominant character of the opera.
唐璜是一个虚构的人物，他的风流故事被许多作家反复再创作过，最有名的包括法国剧作家莫里哀的《唐璜·石宴》（1665年），英国诗人拜伦的诗歌《唐璜》（1821年）和奥地利音乐家莫扎特的《唐·乔瓦尼》（1787年，唐·乔瓦尼是唐璜的意大利叫法）。
歌剧《唐璜》剧照
歌剧《唐璜》中的主人公唐璜是中世纪西班牙一个专爱寻花问柳的胆大妄为的典型人物，他利用自己的魅力欺骗了许多村女和小姐们。一日，唐璜邀请被自己杀死的人的鬼魂赴宴，他终于被鬼魂拉进了地狱，最后遭到魔鬼的报应。
《唐璜》的序曲很有特色，据说莫扎特直到上演的前一天晚上才把序曲写出来。他凌晨创作，每当昏昏欲睡时，妻子就会给他讲几个故事来提神。他只花了三个小时就完成了序曲。序曲展现了宴会的场景，基调悲沉，阴暗庄严，暗示了悲剧的结尾。之后的快板节奏都是塑造唐璜游戏人生、不顾后果、及时行乐的性格，就像唐璜吹着口哨往前走，将主人公最鲜明的个性勾勒出来了。
The Marriage of Figaro is an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his brilliant librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte in 1786. It was based the story on a french play, Le Mariage de Figaro by Pierre Beaumarchais. The story is a sequel to that of The Barber of Seville , which Rossini set to music. Both are derived from Figaro comedies by Beaumarchais. In Rossini's opera it is Figaro, at the time a barber in Seville, who plays the go-between for Count Almaviva and his beloved Rosina. In Mozart's play, Rosina is now the wife of the Count, and Figaro has become the valet of the Count, who unfortunately, is promiscuous in his attentions to women, including Susanna, the Countess' vivacious maid, who is affianced to Figaro. At that time, a male master has the right to sleep with an engaged maid for one night before her marriage.Therefore, the Count tries to take advantage of Susanna by assigning the couple a room adjacent to his bedroom. Figaro, Susanna, and the Countess conspire to embarrass the Count and expose his scheming. He responds by trying to compel Figaro legally to marry a woman old enough to be his mother, but it turns out at the last minute that she is really his mother. Through Figaro's and Susanna's clever manipulations, the Count's love for his Countess is finally restored.
《费加罗的婚礼》剧照
The play reflects the elevation in class of the people on the lower wrung of the society and their victory in resisting the oppression of the a ristocracy.Though set in Spain rather than France, Beaumarchais' plays about Figaro were frowned upon by government censors because their hero was a somewhat rebellious servant who was far cleverer than his noble master. It is remembered today as an important milestone in the build-up to the French Revolution. The opera version by Mozart has enshrined the masterpiece as even more exciting, humorous, and true to life than Beaumarchais' original play. Louis XVI, with uncanny prophetic insight, said of The Marriage of Figaro : "For this play not to be a danger, the Bastille would have to be torn down first." Napoleon famously described it as "the Revolution in action". The overture is one of the highlights of the show. Lively and spectacular, the symphony can also be played independently.
《费加罗的婚礼》是莫扎特1786年与杰出的剧本作家洛伦佐·达·彭特合作的一部歌剧，以法国剧作家皮埃尔·博马舍的同名剧作为原型创作，是罗西尼的歌剧《塞维利亚的理发师》的续集——这两部作品都属于博马舍的“费加罗三部曲”。在罗西尼的歌剧里，费加罗是一位理发师，他帮助阿尔玛维瓦伯爵和罗西娜牵了红线。在莫扎特的续集里，罗西娜已是伯爵夫人，费加罗成了伯爵家的管家，他将与伯爵夫人的漂亮侍女苏珊娜成婚。可是生性风流的伯爵看上了苏珊娜，按当时的规矩，主人对女仆享有“初夜权”，于是伯爵给了这对小夫妻紧邻自己卧室的一间卧房作为他们的婚房，企图当费加罗不在的时候对苏珊娜不轨。费加罗、苏珊娜和伯爵夫人罗西娜联合起来，揭发了伯爵的阴谋。伯爵变本加厉，企图让费加罗娶一个老得可以做他妈妈的女人，可是最后却发现这个老女人实际上正是费加罗的母亲。费加罗、苏珊娜夫妇凭借智慧挫败了伯爵的诡计，并且终于使伯爵和伯爵夫人重修旧好。
这部剧反映了当时社会底层人民地位的上升和反封建、反权贵斗争的胜利，虽然故事是以西班牙为背景的，但是博马舍的这部作品仍然遭到当局的反感和审查，因为剧中的主人公具有反抗意识，而且比主人更聪明。今天，《费加罗的婚礼》被看做法国大革命的前奏。莫扎特的歌剧版本比博马舍的原作更加恢弘、幽默、贴近生活，路易十六在看了这部剧以后说：“因为这部剧，巴士底狱要被攻陷了。”拿破仑评价这部剧为“革命之作”。《费加罗的婚礼》序曲是整部歌剧中的亮点之一，它采用交响乐的形式，生动活泼、气势恢统、完整独立，可以脱离歌剧单独演奏。
The Barber of Seville is an opera buffa in two acts by G. Rossini based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy under the same title. It has proven to be one of the greatest masterpieces of comedy within music, and has been described as the opera buffa of all "opere buffe". Rossini was well known for being remarkably productive, completing an average of two operas per year for 19 years, and in some years writing as many as four. Musicologists believe that, true to form, the music for Barber was composed in just three weeks.
Figaro, a smart and resourceful barber in Seville, helps the love-stricken Count Almaviva get together with Rosina, a beautiful young lady in town. Rosina is the ward of Doctor Bartolo, who tries to marry her himself and closely guarded her in the house. The show is full of humor, tension and surprises. The overture, the origin of Almaviva's graceful solo, and the music selected by prima donnas to sing in the "lesson scene" in the second act are all delightfully presented.
意大利戏剧家罗西尼，以创作喜歌剧而名垂青史
《塞维利亚的理发师》剧照
《塞维利亚的理发师》是意大利作曲家G.罗西尼根据法国戏剧家博马舍的同名戏剧创作的二幕歌剧。它被看做史上最伟大的音乐喜剧之一，被称为“
喜歌剧中的喜歌剧
”
。罗西尼是一位产量颇丰的剧作家，他在19年的创作生涯中平均每年创作两部歌剧，有时甚至高达四部。有研究认为，《塞维利亚的理发师》只用了三个星期的时间就完成了。
这部作品讲的是塞维利亚的理发师费加罗帮助陷入情网的阿尔马维瓦伯爵与美丽的女子罗西娜牵线搭桥的故事。罗西娜是巴托洛医生的养女，邪恶的巴托洛医生企图把罗西娜据为己有，不准她轻易踏出家门一步。这部喜歌剧故事情节起伏，悬念迭起，幽默诙谐，作品中的序曲、男高音阿尔玛维瓦的独唱和第二幕音乐教学课上的女高音独唱都可圈可点。
Carmen is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, and his last one too, based on a novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. Its initial run extended to 36 performances. Before this run was concluded, Bizet died suddenly, and thus knew nothing of the opera's later celebrity.
The opera, written in the genre of opéra comique with musical numbers separated by dialogue, tells the story of the downfall of Don José, a naive soldier who is seduced by the wiles of the fiery gypsy Carmen. José abandons his childhood sweetheart and deserts from his military duties to join the bandits, yet loses Carmen's love to the glamorous toreador Escamillo after which José kills her in a jealous rage. The depictions of proletarian life, immorality and lawlessness, and the tragic outcome in which the main character dies on stage, broke new ground in French opera and were highly controversial.
The prelude of Carmen is a widely-known melody that is easily associated with bullfighting in Spain. And the Toreador's Song from Act 2 is among the best known of all operatic arias. L'amour est un oiseau rebelle sung by Carmen when she is arrested for murder and interrogated by the sergeants is another well-known song that has been adapted into pop songs.Carmen's carefree personality and her love for freedom are implied by the song.
《卡门》是法国作曲家乔治·比才的一部四幕歌剧，也是他的封笔之作，是在法国小说家普罗斯佩·梅里美的同名小说基础上创作的。《卡门》直到上演36场以后才获成功，而那时比才已经去世，无法知道这部作品给自己带来的举世美誉了。
《卡门》是一部道白与歌唱交替出现的歌剧，基本情节为一位天真的士兵唐·何塞被火辣狡猾的吉普赛女郎卡门诱惑，他抛弃了青梅竹马的恋人和自己的军队职位，成了强盗，但是最后卡门却爱上了风流倜傥的斗牛士埃斯卡米洛，于是何塞在嫉妒和愤恨中杀死了卡门。作品对无产者生活的描述、无视道德和无视法律的现象以及主角死在台上的悲剧结尾，是对传统法国歌剧的突破，因此当时激起了很大争议。
《卡门》的序曲旋律几乎家喻户晓，很容易让人跟西班牙斗牛士联系起来。第二幕中的《龙骑士之歌》是歌剧清唱曲目中最广为人知的曲目之一，主人公卡门的著名咏叹调《爱情像一只自由的小鸟》是十分深入人心的旋律，也曾被改编成流行歌曲。卡门因谋杀被逮捕后接受审讯时，漫不经心地哼起了一支小调，此曲形象地表现出卡门放荡不羁、热爱自由的性格。
朱塞佩·威尔第
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《弄臣》剧照
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Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. Its tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunchbacked court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's beautiful daughter Gilda. A courtier's daughter has been seduced by the Duke with Rigoletto's encouragement. He then places a curse on the Duke and Rigoletto. Gilda, Rogoletto's daughter who has been carefully protected by her father, becomes the next object of the Duke's promiscuity. In order to save her daughter, Rigoletto works out an assassination plot. But the curse comes to fruition when Gilda falls in love with the Duke and eventually sacrifices her life to save him from the assassins hired by her father.
Verdi strengthens the dramatic part of the play and with skillful musical techniques depicts deeply the rich mental changes and characteristics of the characters of the play. The opera creates three different musical images, that is, the irresolute and mentally changeable jester, the refined but frivolous, affectionate but easily changeable duke and the innocent, affectionate and poetically imaginative Gilda. Many selections of this opera have become world famous, of which La donna è mobile (Women are fickle) sung by the womanizer Duke, with its relaxed and lively rhythm and gorgeous tones, becomes a world popular classic song.
Lyric of La donna è mobile (Women are fickle):
"Woman is flighty, like a feather in the wind. She changes her voice—and her mind. Always sweet, pretty face, in tears or in laughter, —she is always lying. Always miserable, is he who trusts her, he who confides in her—his unwary heart! Yet one never feels fully happy, who on that bosom—does not drink love!"
《弄臣》是意大利作曲家威尔第根据法国作家雨果的剧作《国王寻欢作乐》改编的三幕歌剧，讲述的是荒淫无度的曼图亚公爵、驼背的弄臣戈莱托和戈莱托的漂亮女儿吉尔达的的故事。戈莱托为曼图亚公爵出谋划策，诱惑并玷辱了一位大臣的女儿，这位怒不可遏的大臣给戈莱托和公爵下了诅咒，让戈莱托一心保护的宝贝女儿吉尔达成为公爵下一个猎艳目标。为了保护女儿，戈莱托策划暗杀公爵，可是吉尔达偏偏爱上了公爵，愿意代替公爵而死。最终戈莱托雇用的杀手误杀了吉尔达，报应终于降临在弄臣头上。
威尔第的音乐才华体现在为不同的角色谱写风格迥异的曲调上。该剧包含了三种不同的音乐形象：犹豫不决的弄臣，精致细腻、拈花惹草、阴晴多变的公爵，纯真、热情、如诗如画的吉尔达。剧中的许多歌曲世界闻名，其中玩弄女性的公爵唱的《女人爱变卦》以其丰富多变的音调成为经典曲目。
《女人爱变卦》歌词:
“女人爱变卦，像羽毛风中飘，不断变主意，不断变腔调。看上去很可爱，功夫有一套，一会儿用眼泪，一会儿用微笑。你要是相信她，你就是傻瓜，和她在一起，不能说真话。可是这爱情，又那么醉人，若不爱她们，岂不是辜负了青春。”
《茶花女》剧照
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Verdi based on La dame aux Camélias, a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. Violetta, a famous courtesan in Paris, falls in love with Alfredo, a young bourgeois from a provincial family. Alfredo's father forces Violetta to leave his son for she tarnishes the family's name. Not knowing the truth, Alfredo believes that Violetta has betrayed him. Then he seeks every possible means to humiliate and get back on her. Violetta dies in her prolonged struggle with illness and untold grievance. Only when he has read her journal does Alfredo realizes how much she has sacrificed for love.
The music in the play depicts the subtle psychology of the characters. For instance, The Drinking song in the First Act sung by Alfredo after a few drinks expresses his eagerness for love. Violetta's aria, on the other hand, indicates the predicament confronting her. Today, the opera has become immensely popular and it is a staple of the standard operatic repertoire. It is second on the Operabase list of the most performed operas worldwide.
《茶花女》是威尔第创作的一部三幕歌剧，由法国作家小仲马的同名小说改编而成。作品描写巴黎名妓薇奥莉塔与并不富裕的青年阿尔弗莱德相爱，但是阿尔费莱德的父亲暗中迫使薇奥莉塔离开了他。阿尔弗莱德不明就里，以为薇奥莉塔抛弃了他，便寻找一切机会报复。薇奥莉塔忍辱负重，在疾病和悲痛的双重折磨下含恨而死。最后阿尔弗莱德发现了薇奥莉塔的日记，才发现她为爱情作出的巨大牺牲，追悔莫及。
《茶花女》的音乐描绘了人物细致的心理活动。如第一幕中的名段《饮酒歌》，表现了阿尔弗莱德借酒抒发他对真诚爱情的渴望和赞美；薇奥莉塔的咏叹调则表现了她复杂微妙的心理矛盾。如今，《茶花女》成为了各大剧院的保留剧目，是上演率排名世界第二的作品。
Otello is an opera in four acts by Verdi based on Shakespeare's play Othello . The story is set in the Cyprus Island in the end of the 15th century.The Venetian governor and a black Moor, Otello, has killed his wife Roderigo encouraged by his venomous subordinate Iago. The moment he uncovers the truth, he claims his own life in remorse and regret.
Most commentators and musicologists consider Otello to be Verdi's greatest, most mature opera. In it, he tried to do away with the traditional recitative-aria structure of opera, much as Richard Wagner had done. Theflow between the set pieces is much smoother than in any of Verdi's earlier works. Verdi's librettist, Arrigo Boito, was extremely faithful to Shakespeare's original play, though act 1 of the drama was omitted and the other scenes were condensed in length. The roles of Otello and Iago are among the most fully developed in all of opera. Verdi's orchestral writing in Otello is more highly developed than in any of Verdi's previous masterpieces. Whereas the orchestra served as little more than an accompaniment to the singing in his earlier works, in Otello , the orchestra plays a major part in conveying the events of the opera.
《奥赛罗》剧照
《波西米亚人》剧照
《奥赛罗》是威尔第根据莎士比亚的同名剧作改编的四幕歌剧，以15世纪末叶塞浦路斯岛作为背景。剧中主角奥赛罗是一位黑色人种的摩尔人，担任威尼斯军的统帅。他因听信部下伊阿古的谗言，杀死了美丽忠贞的妻子黛丝德莫娜，等到明白事情的真相后悔恨交集，终于自杀，追随爱妻于黄泉下。
今天，人们认为《奥赛罗》是威尔第最成功、最成熟的歌剧，因为他打破了瓦格纳崇尚的宣叙调—咏叹调分隔鲜明的格式，每个场景之间都过渡得天衣无缝。该剧的剧本编剧包依托非常忠实于莎士比亚的原著，虽然第一幕被省去了，剧情也变得更加紧凑。奥赛罗和阿伊古是歌剧历史上两个发展最为成熟的人物。威尔第在《奥赛罗》中的交响曲也比他之前的作品更加成熟。以前，他的交响乐是作为歌曲配乐出现的，但是在《奥赛罗》里，交响乐成为推动剧情发展的不可缺少的因素。
La Bohème is considered by many Puccini's finest score. It chances that, as La Bohème is laid in the Quartier Latin in the 1830s, the students' quartet of Paris, where gayety and pathos touch elbows, it laughs as well as weeps. Authors and composers who can tear passion to tatters are more numerous than those who have the light touch of high comedy. The latter, a distinguished gift, confers distinction upon many passages in the score of La Boheme , which anon sparkles with merriment, anon is eloquent of love, anon is stressed by despair.
Four friends share a drafty Parisian garret. Though leading a life of privation, they are buoyed by good spirits: the writer Rodolfo, the painter Marcello, the musician Schaunard and the philosopher Colline. It is Christmas Eve, and they decide to celebrate in their favorite pub. Rodolfo stays behind to finish an article. There is a knock at the door; their neighbor Mimì, whose candle has gone out, asks for fire. Rodolfo is fascinated by her. It is love at first sight! The light-hearted mood of Rodolfo's and Mimì's first days together does not last, however, for Mimì develops a fatal illness.Though they agree to stay together, Mimì leaves her lover. Only when she is desperately ill and dying does she return to the garret where she once was so happy – and to Rodolfo, the man she still loves with all her heart. The two arias in the first act are most famous: Rudolf's Che gelida manina and Mimi's Sì, mi chiamano Mimì, often played as solos in concerts.
《波西米亚人》被看做普契尼最好的一部作品。故事发生在1830年的巴黎拉丁区，一个学生聚居的地方，这里充满了欢乐与哀愁、笑声与哭泣。这里更多的是失意的作家和作曲家，缺乏快乐和幽默。《波西米亚人》中有一些喜剧的片段，有时欢乐，有时是爱的表达，有时却掺杂着绝望。
故事讲述四个好朋友一同住在拉丁区的一间阁楼里，虽然生活贫困，但是个性开朗。他们是作家鲁道夫、画家马尔切洛、音乐家舒那奥和哲学家柯林。适逢圣诞前夜，他们决定到常去的酒吧里庆祝，鲁道夫说要先写完一篇文章再去。敲门声响起，来的是他们的邻居咪咪，她的蜡烛熄灭了，来借火。鲁道夫对芳邻一见钟情，但是好景不长，咪咪得了绝症。虽然他们说好要在一起，但是咪咪却离开了爱人。当病得快要不行的时刻，咪咪终于回到曾经度过快乐时光的地方，回到她依然深爱的男人身边。歌剧以第一幕中的两首咏叹调《你那双冰冷的小手》和《我的名字叫咪咪》最为著名，其音乐舒缓温柔，常常作为独唱曲目在音乐会上演出。
意大利作曲家普契尼
美国歌剧女高音歌唱家吉拉尔汀·法拉尔扮演的《蝴蝶夫人》剧照
Madame Butterfly (1904) is Puccini's classic opera of a trusting woman and how her love was tragically betrayed. In the 19th century, an American sailor named Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton arrives in Japan and meets a 15year-old girl named Cio-Cio-San, whom he calls Butterfly. Butterfly falls in love with Pinkerton, but he regards their romance as a temporary fling and has no intention of bringing her with him when he returns to the States. Blinded by love, Butterfly marries Pinkerton, even though it means turning her back on her family and her faith, gives birth to a boy before her husband soon leaves her behind. The heart-broken woman lives for the day that he returns, though her friends give her little hope that this will ever happen. One day, Pinkerton does indeed returnwith his American wife Kate in tow, and with the intention of taking possession of his child and bringing him back to the United States. Agreeing to give up her child if Pinkerton comes himself to see her, Madame Butterfly goes behind a screen, cutting her throat with her father's hara-kiri knife.
Un bel dì (One beautiful day) is the opera's most famous aria (and one of the most popular works in the soprano repertoire). Butterfly says that, "one beautiful day, they will see a puff of smoke on the far horizon. Then a ship will appear and enter the harbor. She will not go down to meet him but will wait on the hill for him to come. After a long time, she will see in the far distance a man beginning the walk out of the city and up the hill. When he arrives, he will call ‘Butterfly’ from a distance, but she will not answer, partly for fun and partly not to die from the excitement of the first meeting." The smooth melody and lyric brings to life a Japanese girl anxious to see her lover but restrained by etiquette and reservation.
《蝴蝶夫人》（1904年）是有关一个痴心等待的女人如何遭到背叛的故事。19世纪，美国海军军官本杰明·富兰克林·平克顿来到日本，遇到一个15岁的叫做乔乔桑的日本女子，他叫她“蝴蝶”，两人坠入爱河。但是平克顿只把这段感情看成是短暂的艳遇而已，并不打算把她带回美国。蝴蝶夫人与家人决裂嫁给了平克顿，生下了一个儿子，可是不久丈夫便离她而去。蝴蝶夫人就这样苦苦地等待，她的朋友都劝她说平克顿再也不可能回来了。一天，平克顿带着妻子凯特回到日本，企图把蝴蝶夫人的孩子带回去抚养。蝴蝶夫人要求平克顿亲自来领孩子，自己却走到屏风后面，用父亲的武士刀自刎而死。
《晴朗的一天》是全剧中最著名的咏叹调，也是最常演出的女高音曲目。蝴蝶夫人唱道：“美好的一天，你我将会相见，一缕青烟，自大海的边际升起，之后船只出现在海面，一名男子自人群中现身，如渺小的黑点，向山丘走来。他将自远处呼唤我的名字，我将躲起来噤声不语，半为戏弄他，半为不让自己，因喜悦而死去。”这段咏叹调表现出一位日本少女期盼见到爱人的激动难耐又娇羞含蓄的复杂心情。
《图兰朵》剧照
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini.The script was written by playwright Giuseppe Adami and journalist Renato Simoni. Simoni once worked as a correspondent in China in 1912 which enabled him to have a deeper understanding the country.The surprisingly accurate details about China in the opera are likely to be proposed by him.
The story, set in China, involves prince Calàf, a prince exiled to China in the Yuan Dynasty, who falls in love with the cold princess Turandot. To obtain permission to marry her, a suitor has to solve three riddles; any false answer results in death. Calàf passes the test, but Turandot still hesitates to marry him. He offers her a way out: he agrees to die should she be able to guess his real name. Turandot captures Calàf's father and maid, trying in vain to force the prince's name out of them.Eventually, Calàf's kiss softens the princess' heart and she declares that she shall marry him.
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! is the most famous aria in the opera, sung by Calàf when he is asking Turandot to guess his name. The most recognizable version is the one by Pavarotti. The Chinese folk song Jasmine has also been adapted into choir or accompaniment. With the actors and actresses dressed in Yuan costumes, the opera takes on prevailing characteristics of China.
《图兰朵》是普契尼的一部三幕歌剧，剧本由剧作家阿丹米和记者席莫尼改写。席莫尼曾在1912年被派驻至中国一段时间，对中国的风俗有些了解。 《图兰朵》 剧本中不少令人感到惊讶、贴切的中国背景资料，应是他所提供的意见。
故事发生在中国。流亡元朝的鞑靼王子卡拉夫爱上了生性冷傲的公主图兰朵。图兰朵说，要想娶她必须猜对三个谜语，答错一个就会被处死。卡拉夫答对了三个谜题，但是图兰朵却耍赖不想兑现诺言。于是卡拉夫给了她一个选择：只要公主猜对他的真名，他就愿意去死。公主捉到了王子的父亲和侍女，并且严刑逼供，仍然没有问出王子的姓名。最后，王子的强吻融化了她冰般冷漠的心，图兰朵最终公告天下下嫁王子。
《今夜无人入睡》是《图兰朵》中最著名的一首咏叹调，剧情背景是鞑靼王子卡拉夫在要求公主图兰朵猜其身份，该曲以帕瓦罗蒂演唱的版本最为著名。同时，《茉莉花》也是该剧的主要音乐素材之一，它被改编成女声合唱和穿插在其他唱段中的配乐，加上演员们身着元朝服饰，使得这个完全由洋人编写和表演的中国故事有了浓郁的中国色彩和风味。