The film-maker wasn't so sanguine though. I told Mehta that I didn't know anything about Italian opera except what I had seen on television. However, the director's lack of experience apparently worried the Chinese government. Mehta managed to press his case with the authorities. To Zhang, the opera has little to do with his country.
Love is a universal theme.
The beautiful but cruel Turandot declares she will marry any nobleman who solves the three riddles she sets. The price of failure, however, is death. Calaf, a Tartar prince in disguise, wins her heart, but only after his faithful slave girl commits suicide rather than reveal his identity. Puccini, who had never visited China, dreamt up the tale using elements of an 18th-century Italian play and his impressions from Asian music boxes. That my Turandot does not have much to do with traditional Italian opera makes it more interesting.