“Le Royaume de Harmonie,” (The Kingdom of Harmony) from the theater production of La Poule aux Oeufs d’Or , (The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs) in the Galerie Dramatique

Figural instruments inhabit utopian worlds in fantasy stories that draw on the idea of music as a universal language and governing force, from realms envisioned in the ancient world to those depicted in literature and modern animation. In the nineteenth-century theatrical extravaganza depicted here, loosely based on Aesop’s fable The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, dancers in the finale wore costumes that transformed them into living instruments.