Japan, this week

Music shops around the country have reported high sales of Puccini's opera ever since Shizuka Arakawa skated her way to the gold medal to a Violin Fantasy of Turandot at the Turin Olympics. Fans flooded CD stores to add the music to their collection, many returning instead with full versions of the opera, buying on title alone.
"I don't care," beamed fan Mami Sasaki, 14, clutching a two CD set featuring Jussi Bjoerling, Birgit Nilsson and Renata Tebaldi as Liu. "I got the music, I ordered the earrings, and I'm practicing my Ina Bauer everyday in front of the mirror. Pretty soon I'm going to be Arakawa."

The opera, set in China and using traditional Chinese music in its themes, was incomplete at the time of the composer's death, yet gave the world the popular aria "Nessun Dorma", sung by Pavarotti as the theme for the 1990 soccer World Cup. English violinist Vanessa-Mae released her violin fantasy of the opera in 1997, and it was to this soupy bullshit that Arakawa skated in Turin.

Later that night, Sasaki's mother tried to call her out of her bedroom where she was performing a destructive tantrum of prima donna proportions.
"Mami-chan, I'll find the Olympic version, I promise! Please take the hamster out of the blender! I'll buy it tomorrow! Mami?"

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