YMMV / Turandot

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• Adaptation Displacement: The opera has overshadowed the Gozzi play it's based on, as well as earlier musical versions by such distinguished composers as Weber and Busoni.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Subverted in China. This opera used to be banned in this country, in a literal sense, and hated because of it being seen as a xenophobic work there. However, since the 2010's, the hatedom died out thanks to some local adaptations of the opera itself there.
• Awesome Music: The whole opera — which is kind of the problem, according to Puccini's critics, who maintain that underlining every single moment with Awesome Music of Awesomeness tends to kill the actual drama. The ticket sales remain undiminished. And, as Giuseppe Verdi said, that's the only true gauge of success.
  • Others point to Franco Alfano's bombastic conclusion, which didn't involve the impressionistic subtleties Puccini had planned to use in the finale. (Berio's ending has more of these.)
    • Alfano's original ending which Toscanini cut ruthlessly, is performed sometimes today, with its own appreciative fans.
  • "Nessun Dorma" in particular demands special mention. Luciano Pavarotti's performance of it in The '90s made it quite possibly the most-recognised piece of opera music ever composed.
• Banned in China: See the Americans Hate Tingle example below.
• Broken Base: How the opera truly ends depends on the opinion of the person viewing it. The Toscanini-edited Alfano ending, in which Turandot calls Calaf "Love," is the standard ending, but not everyone agrees with this bombastic conclusion, citing its inadequate buildup of Turandot's Heel–Face Turn, so a number of different endings have been composed over the years. Sometimes Alfano's original, longer and more melodic ending is used. In 2002, Luciano Berio created a more ambiguous ending. In 2008, a Chinese composer named Hao Wei Ya composed an ending where Calaf kisses Turandot tenderly instead of forcefully and Turandot sings a whole aria expanding upon her Heel–Face Turn. And in 2017, Anton Coppola, at the age of 100, composed a radically grim finale where Turandot instead has Calaf beheaded, like so many of her other would-be suitors. It's safe to say that whichever ending you prefer is entirely up to you. Sometimes the opera is performed without an ending at all, Liu's death and funeral being the end.
• Critical Dissonance: Like most of Puccini's operas, Turandot still sells out at the box office, but at least one major critic, the musicologist Joseph Kerman, is not convinced: 'Nobody would deny that dramatic potential can be found in this tale. Puccini, however, did not find it.'
• Designated Hero: Calaf's stubbornness and general refusal to care about anything except winning Turandot's hand, as well as Liu dying for him, don't endear him to some viewers. Lampshaded in certain productions where Timur, Calaf's father, disowns his son after Liu's death.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Some viewers interpret the finale this way. Really, a Happy Ending literally minutes after the best person in the whole opera killed themselves, doesn't look too convincing. Especially since said person killed herself specifically to avoid giving in to literal torture at the hands of the titular character, just so that her master would have a shot at marrying the torturer herself. Um... hooray?

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