The story was a relatively simple one. In one part of the land, there lived a one-legged musician called Melo who was treated badly by most people, including the beautiful princess, Suzanna. She was so beautiful, she had to wear a golden mask, so as not to blind anyone who saw her radiance. However, she was unhappy and this made her nasty. Eventually, Melo's music helps her to remove her mask and show her for what she really is, a normal girl, who finally feels free and so is able to be happy and pleasant once more.
The music in this performance was played by the puppeteer, Daniel Lempen, using a Xaphoon (Za-foon), which sounds like a mixture of clarinet and saxophone, but has holes in it, like a recorder. There is a link to Lempen Puppets' website and to Ugly Beauty here and you can hear the Xaphoon too. It was a magical show and we had the opportunity to speak to Mr Lempen afterwards and to look at the puppets close up, which fired Chris' creativity again.
Chris and I really liked the idea of the Xaphoon as it is portable and creates a lovely sound (once the player has got the hang of it), so decided to investigate on the internet and have ordered two (very exciting). I'll keep you posted on our progress. Perhaps I should warn the neighbours that there will be strange and horrible sounds emanating from our house over the next few weeks. On second thoughts, perhaps I'll just leave it as a surprise for them!
