Nessun Dorma by Puccini

 

This piece an aria from the opera Turandot by Puccini, which became very popular when it was sung by Luciano Pavarotti as the theme song for the 1990 football World Cup.

This version for solo cello is a reduction of the vocal part and the orchestral accompaniment. There are many double stops and rich harmonies. It is enjoyable to play and very good for double stop practice! A wonderful crowd pleasing party piece and recital encore.
As the timbre of the cello is very close to voice, especially a tenor voice, I look for vocal works that will suit the cello. A strong melody is needed, along with beautiful harmonies that convert easily to the cello.

Nessun Dorma is very popular as a song and is often requested in performances for singers so I though it would be handy to have an arrangement on cello. I enjoyed bringing the harmonies out beneath the melody and reducing the orchestral part into one instrument.

I love the warm rich melody which is enhanced by using the rich double stops.
It is arranged in the original key of G major, which suits the cello as the open G and D strings can be utilized for ease of double stopping. Many open string double stops are used throughout. This means every time the chord is with an open string the tuning can be easily adjusted. It is very good for the practice of this! There is also a couple of sections in thumb position, starting in the 7th position, which is the best place to start for thumb position as the thumb is placed on the D and A which are also harmonic, so can be used to test for tuning.

Part of the melody is played using the tremolo from the original violin part.
There is no other solo cello arrangement available as far as I know, so it was about time there was!