so let's go back to lucca, italy, 1924.ro giacomo puccini is composing the second act of his masterpiece "turandot." >> turandot is a princess. she's beautiful, of course. she does not want to marry anyone because her ancient relative had bad luck with men. so she tells three riddles, and if you can answer the riddles, then you get to marry turandot. if you don't answer the riddles, you lose your head. >> off with you. >> yeah. it's a brutal story. [ gong chimes ] >> when each suitor arrives at the palace, he bangs a bronze gong. but puccini can't find gongs that make the sounds he wants, so he commissions a family of cymbal makers in italy to handcraft them. >> the great composers like puccini often had instruments manufactured to produce sounds that did not exist before. >> his precise gongs are completed, but puccini dies in 1924 before finishing his masterpiece. how many famous operas are there that are unfinished? >> very few, and the most famous of all is "turandot" by puccini. >> a ringer named franco alfano finishes