Puccini's Turandot: Hope Never Sleeps
b'Sometimes, the only thing that gets us through the darkest moments is knowing that the sun will rise again on a new day. Puccini\'s final opera, Turandot, is about courage in the face of adversity, and love triumphing over fear. In other words, it is exactly what the world needs right now.\\xa0\\nThe aria \\u201cNessun dorma\\u201d is Prince Calaf\\u2019s declaration of love and resounding victory cry. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens and three guests explore what makes this aria so popular even beyond the opera house, and how it became an anthem of resilience and hope during the COVID-19 pandemic. This episode features Italian tenor Franco Corelli in a Metropolitan Opera performance from the Before Times (a.k.a. 1966).\\nThe Guests:\\nConductor Yannick N\\xe9zet-S\\xe9guin is the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Orchestre M\\xe9tropolitain in Montreal.\\xa0 He loves conducting Puccini\\u2019s biggest, most majestic opera, but his favorite moments are the intimate arias like \\u201cNessun dorma.\\u201d\\nWriter Anne Midgette\\xa0is the former classical music critic for The Washington Post. She first heard the aria on a Book of the Month Club cassette tape in college, and thinks the secret sauce for \\u201cNessun Dorma\\u201d is in its climactic underdog declaration of \\u201cVincer\\xf2\\u201d -- \\u201cI will win.\\u201d\\nDr. Michael Cho is a pulmonary and critical care physician at Brigham and Women\\u2019s Hospital in Boston, and has been on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. He\\u2019s also a violist, and has been playing with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra for more than 15 years. Recently, he joined the National Virtual Medical Orchestra, a group that formed during COVID to give people in the medical field a chance to play together. Watch their performance of "Nessun Dorma" below.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nIn April of 2020, 700 children across Europe sang a virtual performance of "Nessun dorma" as a message of hope and solidarity, from\\xa0Europa InCanto. You can meet two of the stars in this episode, and watch their performance below.'