In questa reggia

Ghena Dimitrova (Bulgarian: Гeна Димитpова) (6 May 1941--11 June 2005) was a Bulgarian operatic soprano. Her voice was known for its power and extension used in operatic roles such as Turandot in a career spanning four decades. She started singing in the school choir and her powerful voice led to her being offered a place at the Sofia Conservatory studying under Cristo Brambarov between 1959 and 1964. While she was initially classified as a mezzo-soprano, she was recognised as a soprano in her second year. She made her Italian debut as Turandot in Treviso in 1975, and essayed the same role for her 1983 La Scala debut opposite tenor Plácido Domingo in Franco Zeffirelli's lavish production. Her Turandot is also preserved in a video of the Arena di Verona production from 1983, with Nicola Martinucci and Cecilia Gasdia. In 1988, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York performing the same role. Dimitrova once said of the role: "Turandot may not be my favorite part, but it shows off the voice to great advantage. The way the music is written, you need a voice like a trumpet to do it justice." Her debut in the United States was in 1981 performing the role of Elvira in Ernani. She sang at the Barbican Arts Centre in Ponchielli's La Gioconda in 1983 before making her Covent Garden debut in the same year...

Lyrics & English Translation

In this palace, thousands of years ago,
a desperate cry rang out.
And that cry, passing down the generations
found refuge here in my soul!
Princess Lo-u-Ling,
sweet and serene ancestress, you who reigned
in your deep silence in pure joy
and defied, unyielding and confident,
the harsh domination (of men),
today you live again in me!

(It was when the King of the Tartars unfurled his seven banners.)

And yet in the time that everyone remembers,
there was dismay and terror and the roar of arms.
The kingdom was conquered!
And Lo-u-Ling, my ancestress, dragged away
by a man like you, like you,
stranger, there in the terrible night
where her young voice was stifled!

(For ages she has slept in her vast tomb.)

O Princes, who in long caravans
from every part of the world
come here to try your fortune,
I avenge upon you, upon you
that purity, that cry and that death!
No man will ever possess me!
Horror of the man who killed her
remains alive in my heart.
No, no! No man will ever possess me!
Ah, in me is reborn the pride
of such great chastity!
Stranger! Do not tempt fortune!
The riddles are three, death is one!


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