Magic of Music • The Dolphin Violin
Motion picture • Family
Dietrich von Oppeln (49) 06761-9678680

After the death of the famous violin maker Stradivarius, the Prince of Cremona robs the powerful violin »Delfino« from the master’s protégé which thrusts the prince into a hell of a life until he learns about the true »Magic of Music« from the bereft and becomes a benign ruler of his country - and an even better musician. A film playing in Italy around 1730.

A panhandler in New York City who earns a few dollars a day playing the violin, thinks he recognizes the daughter of an old friend in a famous violin soloist. This friend, he believes, robbed him of a famous Stradivarius violin, the "Dolphin Violin," which was made by Antonio Stradivarius in 1714 in Cremona.

After becoming greatly frustrated with his old, rather worn-out fiddle and throwing it in a garbage can, he decides to steal the "Dolphin," which he sees as rightly his. The theft is successful.

Running from the police and wounded by a gunshot, he winds up in a wealthy mansion. To his surprise, the inhabitants tend him gently. He is taken to the guest quarters and cared for by the lady of the house. Old paintings of northern Italy at the time of Stradivarius adorn the walls. The pictures take on life in the panhandler’s hallucinatory fever. In his dreams, he becomes part of the pictures.

Flashback to Italy in the early 18th century. The theme is the Dolphin violin. It and the secret of violin-making are Stradivarius’ legacy to his master apprentice, ALESSANDRO CAMPIANO.

But another person lays claim to the "Dolphin," the Prince of Cremona, a violent and callous ruler of the Principality of Cremona. The man is passionately fond of playing the violin. Though he had tried to insist many times, Stradivarius never gave in to his requests and demands to make a violin for him or even sell him one. And the object of his desire is one special violin: "The Dolphin“.

The Prince takes advantage of Stradivarius’ death to gain possession of the Dolphin violin. But when he goes to play the instrument a few days later in a concert at court, the instrument produces no melodious tones. It seems that the instrument simply refuses to play. The prince becomes irate, especially since he has appeared to be a fool in front of the whole court.

Since he needs a scapegoat, he throws Alessandro into jail. Having discovered that Alessandro is in love with his daughter Leona, he orders him killed.

Shortly thereafter, while hunting the „white hart“, the prince is thrown from his horse and paralyzed from the neck down. Many doctors are called in, but none can help him. Finally, it is the music of the Dolphin, played by a miraculously saved Alessandro and the magic power of the secret varnish that restore the prince to health.

A wedding is celebrated and there is a happy ending.

The panhandler in New York has an amazing experience with his own violin.

A film with lots of music, both Italian baroque and modern compositions, ballet, songs with acrobats, a magician-jester who is also an Androgyne, titillating erotic and finely-woven motives. A film about the wonderfully maintained historic setting in and around Cremona, the enchanting upper Italian landscape and the beauty of violins and violin music.

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