Turandot

In her first Italian years, Maria Callas earned her place the hard way — by singing what few others could. Puccini's Turandot, the ice princess whose riddles cost her suitors their heads, is among the most punishing roles ever written for soprano: relentless, high-lying, merciless. Callas sang it across Italy in the late 1940s, beginning in Venice in 1948, and it helped establish her reputation as a voice of extraordinary steel.

She later set the role aside as her art turned towards the bel canto heroines — but her studio recording of 1957, made when she no longer sang the part on stage, preserves an "In questa reggia" of imperial ferocity, the icy pride of the princess cut through with the wound beneath it.

Turandot belongs to the first chapter of the Callas story: the young, unstoppable voice that could sing anything, before she chose to sing what mattered.

In the Foundation's collection

The Foundation's collection preserves the crown of Turandot, alongside photographs and documents of her early Italian career. Explore the collection · Licensing

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