Music Box Plays "Turandot"
By Michael Wolff
Angelo Rulli reported a stolen music box, dated at 1850 and playing Chinese music written by Puccini for his opera Turandot. A bit unlikely -- Puccini wasn't born until 1858 and he wrote Turandot in 1926. No wonder it was stolen, it's surely unique!
Michael Wolff
New Zealand
michaelw@ihug.co.nz
[ Editors note:
[
[ I think the melodies in "Turandot" were familiar well before 1926.
[ Our member, Miss Miho Matsuo, wrote to me in October concerning a
[ Swiss music box which plays Oriental melodies:
[
[> Today I hit on the idea that I should also check Puccini's
[> "Turandot", and it was not useless. As far as I could recognize there
[> were 2 [Chinese] tunes included in the opera. This story takes place
[> in Beijing, and these melodies were described as Chinese folk songs.
[
[ snip - "ascii music" ]
[
[> This could be the song number one, which I mentioned as a song
[> brought into Japan about 50 years ago. Some books say that it was
[> also popular in Europe at the end of 18th century, and was called
[> "Moo-Lee-Wha". Judging from the Chinese characters shown in the book,
[> it is a kind of chicken often used as a metaphor of dawn. The motiv
[> appears through out the whole play, representing a Chinese princess
[> named Turandot.
[
[> Also, some books had an interesting story. I will try to translate.
[> "It is said that Puccini quoted several melodies from a music box
[> which his friend, Barone Fassini, a consul long resided in China,
[> had owned. It played the newly decided national anthem of Ching
[> [the Ching Dynasty], and other old Chinese folk music..."
[
[ Robbie Rhodes |
(Message sent Tue 4 Mar 1997, 21:03:58 GMT, from time zone GMT+1300.) |
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