Tell me a riddle

With the encore presentation of The Metropolitan Opera's "Turandot" set for Nov. 18, I thought you might be interested in the antecedents of the story, which is your classic riddle tale (boy meets girl, girl poses three tough questions that boy answers to win her heart).

The most immediate source for Giacomo Puccini's opera is "Calaf and the Princess of China," from "1001 Days," a French compilation similar to "1001 Arabian Nights."

But in his fascinating book "Alexander the Great: A Life in Legend," Richard Stoneman points out that riddle stories have been time-honored since the ancient Middle East, dating at least from Solomon and Sheba.

Alexander and the Assyrian queen Semiramis found their way into the riddle literature in a medieval Greek poem that was discovered in the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt. The Alexander of legend presents himself to Semiramis as a suitor, just as the Egyptian prince Calaf does before the icy, man-hating Chinese princess Turandot. Like Turandot, Semiramis warns her suitor that she will yield only if he correctly answers her impossible questions. In both "Turandot" and the Alexander poem, failure to do so will result in death.

Of course, the ardent suitors are brave enough — and smart enough — to risk all for love. Shouldn't it always be that way?

Semiramis was the inspiration for a very different opera, Giaocchino Rossini's showpiece "Semiramide," which the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah successfully presented this past summer. The ancient world remains a potent muse.

The Met's "Live in HD" simulcast of "Turandot" will be given an encore presentation at City Center 15: Cinema De Lux in White Plains and New Roc City 18 & IMAX in New Rochelle on Nov. 18. Learn more at www.metoperafamily.org