The Chinese music box that inspired Puccini’s Turandot has been found
The Chinese music box that inspired some of Puccini‘s score for his last, unfinished opera, Turandot, has been tracked down in Turin.
The carillon was built in Switzerland for the Chinese market at the end of the 19th century and played four tunes, three of which Puccini used in his opera. Two tunes are traditional – Mo Li Hua (Jasmine Flower) and The Three Masks, as well as an Imperial March. Jasmine Flower became the leitmotif for Princess Turandot, and The Three Masks was used for Ping, Pang and Pong. In all, Puccini used eight traditional melodies for Turandot.
Puccini’s friend Baron Edoardo Fassini-Camossi, a former diplomat to China, owned the carillon, which was kept in his villa in Bagni di Lucca, not far from Torre del Lago where Puccini lived and worked. On a visit, Puccini transcribed its melodies.
Young Italian theatre director Alessandra Premoli was producing a new production of Turandot to inaugurate the season of the Teatre Principal of Palma de Mallorca, and was curious as to where the carillon was to be found.
In July 1918, the 47-year-old Baron, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Royal Army, led an Italian contingent from Siberia to the Russian-Chinese border. They arrived at the Shanhai Pass, where the Great Wall ends. The baron was a discreet musician and in love with China, and he searched for musical instruments from antique dealers and in flea markets to take home to his family villa. Among the pieces found by the baron was the carillon.
Upon his death, the carillon passed to his descendants, and in the 50s one of them gave it to an entrepreneur, Gigi Capra, a collector of music boxes. Premoli says, “The music box then aroused the interest of researchers and the media – in 1965 the music was broadcast via radio by the BBC and became the subject of broadcasts in 1971 and 1983 for Rai [the Italian broadcaster]. After that, all traces of the music box were lost.”
Premoli went looking for it, asking musicologists, archivists and Puccini biographers for information, but the location of the carillon remained a mystery. Following a hunch, Premoli tried to contact a person she thought was from the family of the last known owner and a few days later she received a call from Sig. Lionello, whose wife was one of Capra’s heirs. Premoli visited the couple in their home in Turin and saw the carillon on a table. She made an audio and video recording of it in action.
Premoli then played the recording of the carillon’s melodies to the audience before performances of her Turandot in Spain – performances to mark the 100 years since Puccini’s death.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
