Dominique Barneaud, of Agat Films & Cie and Ex Nihilo, a Paris-based collective of six producers, served as film producer for "The Nightingale." In this imaginative version of Igor Stravinsky's 1914 opera, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, a young boy falls asleep in his grandfather's pottery workshop. In his dream, the story unfolds of a nightingale with an exquisite voice that charms, and eventually saves, the emperor of China. GREAT PERFORMANCES: What was your reaction when you first heard of film director Christian Chaudet's idea to turn this opera into a film that would involve live action, computer graphics, and 21st-century objects, like cell phones? Dominique Barneaud: The first thing I said was, "Oh, my gosh." I knew it would be very difficult to put together in terms of financing and production. But I had already worked on another film with the same director. That was a kind of a test for "The Nightingale." The first film was a very ambitious concept of combining music, images, [and] three-dimensional computer graphics. It was not about storytelling, but more about ambience and illustration. We were kind of halfway to the result we achieved in "The Nightingale." One of the main reasons we chose this opera is because of the length [about 50 minutes]. We knew we could adapt it easily to TV. I was involved for four years, from the initial idea up to its completion, which is a long time working and exploring the possibilities of making the film. This was an entirely new kind of product for us. We were using singers as actors and mixing them with computer-generated images, a little like WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? -- only on a low budget. GP: Were there particularly difficult aspects to filming the singers? DB: All of them were on different schedules, so each one was filmed separately, except maybe some shots with the young kid and Natalie Dessay [the voice of the Nightingale]. The singers were not always sure what would be happening around them in the completed film. We mixed the shots together, like a cut and paste, so it looked as if they had been filmed at the same time. And then we added the computer images. This was a very long, very precise, and very difficult stage of the production. GP: The singers lip-synched to a recording they made previously of the opera with conductor James Conlon and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Paris National Opera. How did that aspect of the filming go? DB: The lip-synching is an issue; sometimes it is a little out of control. But there are so many elements to be careful of. The CD recording of the opera is absolutely great. When it came out [in 1999], we knew the cast was perfect for us. We decided to make the CD the soundtrack of the film, so that part of the job was already done. GP: Given that the film has 600 separate shots, all timed to the music, you must have heard that soundtrack an awful lot. DB: I was not familiar with the opera before we started the film. I like it now. And in the filming, it actually involves very short bits of music at a time, maybe 10 seconds or 20 seconds, so it was nice. Maybe another piece of music would have been difficult to hear all the time. GP: Christian Chadet's fanciful concept for the film introduces imagery and objects from our time into the opera's ancient Chinese setting. How did you feel about that approach? DB: This is the third version of the "The Nightingale." Originally, it was a story by Andersen; then [it was] an opera. And now, it is a film with new media introduced, bringing the opera into a new era with its own issues, its own questions. It all takes place within the dream of the little boy, and anything can happen in his dream. We decided we would mix time periods, characters, locations, and so on. It is a collage of ideas. The director was very free in inspiration; there was no limit. But the main thing is still the purity of the Nightingale's voice against the artifice and manipulations of the emperor's Chamberlain. I think it's nice to show to the public a new possibility, to discover a work of Stravinsky that is not so well known and that gives a modernity to the piece. It's an accessible work and an accessible film. It tells a story with mystical elements in it. You can find many layers of meaning in this. GP: Likewise, there are many visual layers in the film -- the real singers, computer-enhanced characters, computer-created scenery. Some of the scenes involve an amazing number of elements. DB: It took a lot of research and documentation to decide every detail, working with the art director to decide on the textures of [the] skies and water or umbrellas and ceramics. Everything had to fit together. [Chaudet] really became a kind of painter, working with animators and computer experts to create the images he wanted. The whole project was a nice combination of skills from the director, the singers, and crew, the computer graphic artists. And always the decisions had to be made within the budget and within the schedule. Of course, we went over budget and we went over schedule, but that was to be expected. GP: At what point during the four-year process of making the film did you know for sure that it was going to come out the way it was envisioned? DB: Very early on I was able to show some images to our partners, including people from WNET. The first year, there were just roughly drawn images. The second year, we had computer-generated images. The third year, I could show the first moving images. They were still very roughly done, but everybody could see how it would look at the end, and they were very impressed. GP: How much distribution has the film already had since it was finished in 2004? DB: Most of Europe has broadcast it, except the UK, so far. And we have entered it in many TV and film festivals ["The Nightingale" has won awards in Biarritz, Vienna, and Prague]. I'm very impatient to get feedback from the U.S. GP: Has the success of this project encouraged the same team to transform another opera into a film? DB: We're thinking about it. It's a tough choice to make. There has been some discussion of "Das Rheingold" [the first part of Richard Wagner's four-part "Ring" cycle]. We're thinking about doing that and [to] see how it goes. If it is successful, we could do the rest of the cycle. GP: What are you proudest of with "The Nightingale"? DB: The simple fact that this film exists and that it is now seen around the world. Interview by Tim Smith for GREAT PERFORMANCES Online conducted in December 2005.