Nessun Dorma

I want to set you a challenge.

Tomorrow morning, on your way to work or before the day begins, play Luciano Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma. I’ve put the link here for you Nessun Dorma

I dare you to be having a bad day and not feel it shift.

I used to work a job I hated. The kind where Sunday evenings carry a specific weight and Monday mornings feel like something to be endured rather than met. On those mornings I would play this song in the car.

It helped. Every time.

Nessun Dorma means None Shall Sleep. It’s from Puccini’s opera Turandot — sung by a prince alone in the night, facing execution at dawn if his name is discovered by morning. The final lines translate roughly as: at dawn I will win. I will win. I will win.

That’s what you feel in the music. Not arrogance. Certainty. A man alone in the dark, choosing to believe in the morning anyway.

That’s why it works on a bad Monday in a car on the way to a job you hate. It has nothing to do with opera. It has everything to do with deciding the day is worth showing up for despite everything.

Great art does that. It finds you somewhere ordinary and reminds you what human beings are capable of.

Travel does the same thing. It finds you in a place you’ve never been and makes you feel something you didn’t expect.

Pavarotti never needed a passport to do it.

Play the song. You’ll see.

Paul Mercuri
Wake Up Here Founder

Read all stories