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ODES TO THE NIGHTINGALE
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In the final scene, the Emperor is dying, haunted by past deeds. The Nightingale returns and, beguiling Death with its song, is able to bring the monarch back from the brink. The bird again refuses all reward, save the tears of his listeners.
"I told myself it would not be unreasonable," Stravinsky wrote after he resumed the opera project, "if the music of the [first act] bore a somewhat different character from that of the rest. And, indeed, the forest with its nightingale, the pure soul ... who falls in love with its song -- all this gentle poetry of Andersen's could not be expressed in the same way as the baroque luxury of the Chinese court, with its bizarre etiquette, its palace fetes, its thousands of lanterns, and the grotesque humming of the mechanical Japanese nightingale. All this exotic fantasy obviously demanded a different musical idiom."
That idiom does not include the abrasive qualities of "The Rite of Spring," but does have a spicier, bolder sound, especially in depicting the pomposity of the court scenes, with marches by courtiers and ambassadors. But the lyricism of the first act is not abandoned. As a means of unifying the opera, the haunting song of the Fisherman, which opens the first act, also serves as a coda to all three. And the coloratura flights of the Nightingale heard in the first part of the opera are echoed in the remainder.
"The Nightingale," which lasts only about 50 minutes, breaks considerably with operatic convention of the time. For one thing, very little happens in the piece. And the action, such as it is, is not propelled by the music so much as gently sketched. In the end, the opera is more about symbols, atmosphere, and exotic milieu than arias and theatrical thrust, and the key points in Andersen's story are enhanced without exaggeration or underlining.
Like Orpheus with his lute, the Nightingale has the ability to charm and liberate, to deal with even the fiercest force, unafraid, unperturbed. Above all, the bird can conquer death with its purity, sweetness, and selflessness. In the aesthetic conflict between the authentic Nightingale and the mechanical version, artificiality and superficiality initially win, as they so often do in life. But the real thing, the creature with a loving soul, triumphs in the end, delighted merely by the act of helping someone else.
It's an endearing scenario, and it becomes all the more so because of Stravinsky's color-rich palette. The humanness and simplicity of the Fisherman, the ethereal nature of the Nightingale, the silliness of the court officials, the alternating arrogance and humility of the Emperor -- all find distinctive musical expression here.
The theater in Moscow that commissioned the opera went bankrupt before it could be presented there, so the premiere took place in Paris, with a sumptuous stage set by Alexandre Benois. Pierre Monteux, one of the greatest French conductors of the 20th century, presided in the pit, where the singers in the roles of the Fisherman and the Nightingale performed. The opera was neither a great success nor a flop on that first night, May 26, 1914, and Stravinsky himself had a mixed view of the piece.
Today, although rarely encountered in the theater, "The Nightingale" is widely recognized as a masterful example of the composer's work. Thanks to Christian Chaudet's visionary film, it may gain its greatest appreciation yet.
Top banner photos: The Child (Hugo Simcic) spies The Fisherman on the vase; The Cook (Marie McLaughlin) prepares for the Emperor's fete; The Nightingale (Natalie Dessay) (left and center photos: Agat Films & Cie -- 2005). |
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The Emperor's courtiers. |
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Russian baritone Albert Schagidullin as The Emperor. |
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This program is available on DVD. |
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