🎶 Nessun Dorma (Turandot) — Limmie Pulliam (2024) 🎭 Puccini composed Turandot smoking 80 cigarettes a day with throat cancer already diagnosed. He hid the diagnosis from his son and went through three versions of the finale without accepting any. In November 1924 he traveled to Brussels for experimental throat surgery, carrying the unfinished score in his briefcase. He died before finishing the opera. Nessun Dorma was ready. It is one of the last musical phrases Puccini left to the world. ✨ The scene is act 3. Princess Turandot of Beijing has ordered that no one in the city sleep until the name of the foreigner who asked for her hand is discovered, under penalty of collective execution. Calaf sings alone in the night, under the stars, certain he will win at dawn. The aria ends on the sustained cry "Vincerò!", a held high B that became the most recognizable tenor test in the world. 🕊 La Scala premiered Turandot on April 25, 1926, conducted by Toscanini. On opening night, Toscanini stopped the performance at the bar where Puccini stopped composing, turned to the audience and said "here ends the master's work". Curtain down. In 1990, the BBC used Pavarotti's recording as the theme for the World Cup in Italy, and the aria left the opera houses for English pubs. What weighs more when you hear this: the "I will win" of the character or the "I will win" of the singer? 🎤 Limmie Pulliam Nationality: American Voice type: Dramatic Tenor Date of Birth: 1975 🎼 Giacomo Puccini Nationality: Italian Born: 1858-12-22 Died: 1924-11-29 Period: Late Romantic / Verismo 🎼 Giuseppe Adami & Renato Simoni Role: Librettists Nationality: Italian 📺 Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell, Harlem (New York), June 20, 2024 — Opera in the Park, conducted by Jason Asbury, Grace Chorale of Brooklyn #BestOfOpera #LimmiePulliam #NessunDorma #Turandot - @bestofopera.en