The Miraculous Mandarin

E899659

The Miraculous Mandarin is a one-act pantomime ballet by Béla Bartók, renowned for its modernist, dissonant score and dark, expressionist storyline.

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Statements (50)

Predicate Object
instanceOf one-act ballet
orchestral work
pantomime ballet
bannedIn Germany NERFINISHED
Hungary NERFINISHED
basedOn story by Melchior Lengyel
catalogueNumber BB 82 NERFINISHED
Sz. 73
characteristic dark storyline
dissonant score
composer Béla Bartók NERFINISHED
compositionEndYear 1924
compositionStartYear 1918
countryOfOrigin Hungary NERFINISHED
genre ballet
modernist music
pantomime
hasOrchestralSuite The Miraculous Mandarin (concert suite) NERFINISHED
influencedBy expressionist theatre
urban modernity
languageOfLibretto Hungarian
librettist Melchior Lengyel NERFINISHED
mainCharacter the Girl NERFINISHED
the Mandarin NERFINISHED
three thugs
movementCountInSuite 3
notableFeature bitonality and polytonality
complex rhythms
use of leitmotifs
notableInstrumentation extensive percussion
large orchestra
prominent brass
notableRecording The Miraculous Mandarin conducted by Georg Solti
The Miraculous Mandarin conducted by Pierre Boulez
numberOfActs 1
orchestralSuiteArrangedBy Béla Bartók NERFINISHED
orchestralSuiteYear 1927
period 20th-century classical music
plotElement Mandarin dies only after his desire is fulfilled
Mandarin repeatedly survives attempts to kill him
girl used as decoy to lure men to be robbed
premiereConductor Eugen Szenkar NERFINISHED
premiereCountry Germany NERFINISHED
premiereDate 1926-11-27
premiereLocation Cologne NERFINISHED
premiereTheatre Stadttheater Köln NERFINISHED
reasonForBan sexual and violent content
setting urban underworld
style expressionism
yearOfCompletion 1924

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Béla Bartók notableWork The Miraculous Mandarin