02 Turandot : "O, Principi, Che A Lunghe Carovane"
TURANDOT Still in the time all can recall, there was alarm, terror, the rumble of arms! The Kingdom defeated! defeated! And Lo-u-ling, my ancestress, dragged off by a man, like you, like you, stranger, there in the horrid night, where her sweet voice was stilled!
THE CROWD She’s slept for centuries in her huge tomb!
TURANDOT O you Princess, with your long caravans from every part of the world, who come her to try your fate, in you I avenge that purity, that cry, and that death! No one will ever posses me! The horror of her assassin is still vivid in my heart! No, no one will ever possess me! Ah, in me is reborn the pride of such purity! Stranger, do not tempt Fate! The enigmas are three, but death is one!
THE UNKNONW PRINCE No, no! The enigmas are three, and life is one!
THE CROWD Offer the supreme test to the foreign Prince, O Turandot! Turandot! (The trumpets blare. Silence. Turandot asks the first riddle.)