Nielsen extracted favorites from his incidental music and crafted a concert suite that remains popular today. Still, just like the original Aladdin story (part of The Arabian Nights, which also inspired Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade), there's a silver lining here too. Nielsen asked to have his name removed from the production. And instead of placing the musicians in the orchestra pit, he forced them to squeeze under an onstage staircase. Poulsen cut significant portions of the music and jumbled an important string of dances. Nielsen came up with almost 90 minutes of stunningly original music, including the colorful Oriental Festival March (heard here), subtly spiced with Asian accents, and an innovative scene where he divides the orchestra in quarters, each with its own tune, to mimic the bustle of a busy marketplace.īut once the production went into rehearsal there was trouble. In 1919, Nielsen agreed to write incidental music for Poulsen's revival of the play Aladdin by Adam Oehlenschläger, one of Denmark's great literary figures. She didn't believe me.If you rub Aladdin's lamp you're supposed to be lucky, right? But luck didn't quite materialize for Danish composer Carl Nielsen when he rubbed elbows with theater director Johannes Poulsen. 'I wish that I could fly and be invisible when I wanted to be' After that I went outside and tried to fly and be invisible - and I did! I went back to my room and I was asked my last wish. It was breakfast time and I had toast with peanut butter. The genie got me an ipod touch and I had one more wish. I rubbed it and I wished for an ipod touch.

Today I got out of bed and got my magic lamp. Then I said I would save it until tomorrow. The genie gave me an eyeball instead! Then I said 'I asked for an ipod, not an eyeball!' Then he said 'If you want an ipod or an ipod touch, you need to just wish for them'. In the morning I rubbed the lamp and I wished I could have an ipod like my sister. I said I would save the wishes until tomorrow. The genie said to me 'You have three wishes'. It was delicious! Afterwards, I rubbed the lamp and a genie came out. So I went to the dinner table and we had soup. My sister, Mia, came in and I told her that I found a magic lamp in our garden and that it was a secret.

One day I found a magic lamp and I took it into my room.

Aladdin rub the lamp