The Nightingale (opera)

Opera by Igor Stravinsky

This article is about the 1914 Igor Stravinsky opera. For the 1982 opera/musical of the same name by Charles Strouse, see Nightingale (musical). For the 2012 La Jolla musical, see The Nightingale (musical).

The Nightingale

Opera by Igor Stravinsky

Set design for the premiere by Alexandre Benois

Description| lyric tale
Native title|

Russian: Соловей

Librettist|

* the composer
* Stepan Mitusov

Based on| "The Nightingale"
by Hans Christian Andersen
Premiere|

26 May 1914 (1914-05-26)

Palais Garnier, Paris

The Nightingale (Russian: Соловей, romanized: Solovey) is a short opera in three acts by Igor Stravinsky to a Russian-language libretto by him and Stepan Mitusov, based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen: a nasty Chinese Emperor is reduced to tears and made kind by a small grey bird. It was completed on 28 March 1914 and premiered a few weeks later, on 26 May, by the Ballets Russes conducted by Pierre Monteux at the Palais Garnier in Paris. Publication, by the then Paris-based Éditions Russes de Musique, followed only in 1923 and caused the opera to become known by its French title of Le Rossignol and French descriptor of conte lyrique, or lyric tale, despite its being wholly Russian.

## Composition

[edit]

Stravinsky began work on the opera in 1908 but put it aside after receiving the next year the commission from Sergei Diaghilev for the ballet The Firebird. He returned to it in 1913 after he had completed three ballets for Diaghilev, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring being the others. Act 1, set at the seashore, was mostly complete by 1909; acts 2 and 3, set at court, were finished in early 1914. Stravinsky was no doubt aware of the advances in his style and technique during the intervening years.

In 1917, Stravinsky created a separate concert work, a symphonic poem, from music from the opera. It was published in 1921 as Chant du Rossignol (Song of the Nightingale).[1]

## Performance history

[edit]

For the opera's premiere, the singers were in the pit while their roles were mimed and danced on stage; the mise-en-scène was by Alexandre Benois, who also designed the sets and costumes, and Alexander Sanin; Boris Romanov [ru] was the choreographer.[2] The American premiere took place on 6 March 1926, but in French, at the Metropolitan Opera; this company would perform The Nightingale in its original language for the first time on 3 December 1981.

The Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico presented many operas by Stravinsky during the decade after its founding in 1956. These included, in 1957, The Rake's Progress. Performances of The Nightingale with Stravinsky himself conducting took place in 1962 as part of the composer's 80th birthday celebrations. Other stagings took place in 1963, 1969, 1970 and 1973.[3] In 2014 The Nightingale was paired with Mozart's The Impresario; its action took place in Paris in the 1920s.[4] Santa Fe's cast this time included Brenda Rae, Erin Morley, Meredith Arwady and Anthony Michaels-Moore.[5]

In its 2009 Toronto season, the Canadian Opera Company staged the opera together with shorter works by Stravinsky as The Nightingale and Other Short Fables. This production, directed by Robert Lepage, toured to Japan (the New National Theatre Tokyo),[citation needed] France (2010, Aix-en-Provence Festival),[6] the United States (2011, Brooklyn Academy of Music),[7] Australia (2024 Adelaide Festival).[8]

## Roles

[edit]

Costume design by Benois for the Fisherman Roles, voice types, premiere cast Role  | Voice type | Premiere cast, 26 May 1914[9]
Conductor: Pierre Monteux

|
|

Nightingale (Соловей)  | coloratura soprano | Aurelia Dobrovolska
Fisherman (Рыбак)  | tenor | Aleksandr Varfolomejev
Cook (Кухарочка)  | soprano | Maria Brian
Emperor (Император)  | bass | Pjotr Pavel Andrejev
Chamberlain (Камергер)  | bass  | Aleksandr Belianin
Bonze (Бонза)  | bass  | Nikolaj Goulajev
Death (Смерть)  | contralto | Elisabeth Petrenko
1st Japanese emissary (Японский посол 1)  | soprano  | Mamsina
2nd Japanese emissary  | bass  | Vasilj Saranov
3rd Japanese emissary  | tenor  | Fodor Ernst

## Synopsis

[edit]

Time: Ancient times
Place: China.

The Fisherman acts as commentator on the story's events.[10]

### Act 1

[edit]

At the seashore just before sunrise, a Fisherman hears the song of the Nightingale, which causes him to forget his troubles. The Cook has brought officials from the court of the Emperor to hear the Nightingale, telling of the beauty of its singing. However, the Nightingale is nowhere to be heard. The Court Chamberlain promises the Cook a position as private cook to the Emperor, if she can find the Nightingale, who finally appears, and receives an invitation from the Cook and the Chamberlain to sing for the Emperor. The Nightingale accepts the invitation, but says that its sweetest song is in the forest.

### Act 2

[edit]

Courtiers festoon the palace with lanterns in advance of the singing of the Nightingale. The Cook describes the Nightingale to the courtiers noting that it is small, gray and virtually invisible, but its song causes its listeners to cry. A procession denotes the Emperor's arrival. He commands the Nightingale to sing, and its singing touches him so deeply that he offers the bird a reward of a golden slipper to wear about its neck. Later, three Japanese emissaries offer the Emperor a mechanical nightingale, which begins to sing. The Emperor is delighted by this novelty. Taking insult at this, the genuine bird flies away, and the angered emperor orders it banished from his realm. He names the mechanical bird "first singer".

### Act 3

[edit]

The Emperor is ill and near death; the figure of Death appears in the Emperor's chamber. The ghosts of the Emperor's past deeds visit him while he calls for his court musicians, but the genuine Nightingale has reappeared, in defiance of the imperial edict, and has begun to sing. Death hears the Nightingale's song and is greatly moved, and asks it to continue, which it does on condition that Death returns to the emperor his crown, sword and standard. Death assents and gradually removes himself from the scene as the Nightingale continues to sing. The Emperor slowly regains his strength, and on seeing the Nightingale, offers it the "first singer" post at court. The Nightingale says that it is satisfied with the Emperor's tears as reward, and promises to sing for him each night from dusk until dawn.

## Recordings

[edit]

Year  | Cast: Nightingale,
Emperor,
Cook,
Death,
Bonze,
Fisherman,
Chamberlain  | Conductor,
orchestra and chorus  | Label

|
|
|

1990  | Phyllis Bryn Julson,
Neil Howlett,
Felicity Palmer,
Elizabeth Laurence,
Michael George,
Ian Caley,
John Tomlinson | Pierre Boulez,
BBC Singers and BBC Symphony Orchestra | CD: Erato Disques
Cat.: 4509-98955-2
plus other pieces[11]
1997  | Olga Trifonova,
Paul Whelan,
Pippa Longworth,
Sally Burgess,
Andrew Greenan,
Robert Tear,
Stephen Richardson  | Robert Craft,
London Voices and Philharmonia Orchestra | CD: MusicMasters, later Naxos
Cat.: 8557501
plus The Rite of Spring[12]
1999  | Natalie Dessay,
Albert Schagidullin,
Marie McLaughlin,
Violeta Urmana,
Maxime Mikhailov,
Vsevolod Grivnov,
Laurent Naouri | James Conlon,
Chorus and Orchestra of the Opéra National de Lyon | CD: EMI Classics
Cat.: 7243 5 56874 2 5
plus Renard;
a film was made of The Nightingale a few years later using this recording and released as a
Virgin Classics DVD: Cat.: 7243 5 44242 9 8

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Le Chant du rossignol, (Stravinsky): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
2. ^ Official program of the premiere.
3. ^ Santa Fe Opera's performance database
4. ^ Details of the 2014 production, santafeopera.org
5. ^ James Keller, "Songbirds at the Opera: The Impresario and Le rossignol, The Santa Fe New Mexican, 18 July 2014
6. ^ "Lepage's Nightingale wows France". CBC News. 14 July 2010. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
7. ^ "8 Things to Know About The Nightingale and Other Short Fables". Canadian Opera Company. 5 January 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
8. ^ "The Nightingale and Other Fables" (production details). State Opera of South Australia. 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
9. ^ Casaglia, Gherardo (2005). "Le Rossignol, 26 May 1914". L'Almanacco di Gherardo Casaglia (in Italian).
10. ^ Calvocoressi, Michel-Dimitri (1 June 1914). "M. Igor Stravinsky's Opera: The Nightingale". The Musical Times. 55 (856): 372–374. doi:10.2307/906925. JSTOR 906925.
11. ^ Stravinsky / Boulez – Pulcinella, The Song of the Nightingale, The Nightingale, L'Histoire du soldat at Discogs
12. ^ "Craft / Lso / Philharmonia - Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring - The Nightingale CD", CD Universe

## Further reading

[edit]

* Taruskin, Richard, (1998), "The Nightingale" in Stanley Sadie, (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, Vol. 3, pp. 604–605. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-73432-7, 1-56159-228-5
* Walsh, Stephen, "The Nightingale", in Amanda Holden (Ed.), The New Penguin Opera Guide, New York: Penguin Putnam. pp. 906–907. ISBN 0-14-029312-4

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Solovey (Le Rossignol) at Wikimedia Commons
* The Nightingale (Stravinsky): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

* v
* t
* e

Igor Stravinsky

List of compositions
Discography

Operas and
musical dramas|

* The Nightingale
* Renard
* The Soldier's Tale
* Mavra
* Oedipus rex
* Perséphone
* The Rake's Progress
* The Flood

Ballets|

* The Firebird
* Petrushka
* The Rite of Spring (discography)
* Les noces
* Pulcinella
* Apollo
* The Fairy's Kiss
* Jeu de cartes
* Danses concertantes
* Scènes de ballet
* Orpheus
* Agon

Symphonies|

* Symphony in E♭
* Symphony of Psalms
* Symphony in C
* Symphony in Three Movements

Orchestral music|

* Scherzo fantastique
* Fireworks
* Funeral Song
* Four Études
* The Song of the Nightingale
* Circus Polka
* Ode
* Scherzo à la russe
* Greeting Prelude
* Movements for Piano and Orchestra
* Variations: Aldous Huxley in memoriam
* Canon on a Russian Popular Tune

Concertos|

* Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
* Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
* Violin Concerto in D
* Concerto in E♭ ("Dumbarton Oaks")
* Ebony Concerto
* Concerto in D

Solo
vocal|

* Pastorale
* Pribaoutki
* Berceuses du chat
* Abraham and Isaac
* Elegy for J.F.K.
* "The Owl and the Pussy Cat"

Choral|

* Zvezdoliki
* Ave Maria
* Babel
* Mass
* Cantata
* Canticum Sacrum
* Threni
* A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer
* Requiem Canticles

Piano and
pianola|

* "Tarantella"
* Scherzo
* Piano Sonata in F♯ minor
* Four Études
* "Valse des fleurs"
* Three Easy Pieces
* Five Easy Pieces
* Étude for Pianola
* Piano-Rag-Music
* Les cinq doigts
* Three Movements from Petrushka
* Piano Sonata
* Serenade in A
* Concerto for Two Pianos
* Tango
* Sonata for Two Pianos
* Two Sketches for a Sonata

Chamber
music|

* Three Pieces for String Quartet
* Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet
* Lied ohne Name
* Octet
* Duo Concertant
* Elegy
* Septet
* Epitaphium
* Double Canon (in Memoriam Raoul Dufy)

Other|

* Symphonies of Wind Instruments
* Fanfare for a New Theatre

Arrangements|

* Bluebird Pas de Deux (from Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty)
* Monumentum pro Gesualdo

Family|

| Parents|

* Fyodor Stravinsky (father)

|

Wives|

* Yekaterina Nosenko (first)
* Vera Sudeikina (second)

Children|

* Soulima Stravinsky
* Théodore Strawinsky

Amanuensis|

* Robert Craft

Named for Stravinsky|

* 4382 Stravinsky
* Igor Stravinsky (river cruise ship)
* Stravinsky (crater)
* Stravinsky Fountain
* Stravinsky Inlet

Related|

* Earnest Andersson
* Ernest Ansermet
* George Balanchine
* Ballets Russes
* Nadia Boulanger
* Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (film)
* Jean Cocteau
* Sergei Diaghilev
* Samuel Dushkin
* Arthur Lourié
* Monday Evening Concerts
* New York City Ballet
* Pierre Monteux
* Neoclassicism
* Petrushka chord
* Psalms chord
* Charles Ferdinand Ramuz
* Werner Reinhart
* Serialism

* Category
* Audio

* v
* t
* e

Hans Christian Andersen's "The Nightingale" (1843)

Adaptations|

* The Nightingale (1914 opera)
* Le chant du rossignol (1917 poem/ballet)
* The Emperor's Nightingale (1949 film)
* The Nightingale (1979 film)
* The Nightingale (1981 film)
* Nightingale (1982 musical)
* The Nightingale (2002 children's picture book)

Other|

* The Nightingale casting controversy

Portal:

* Opera

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Israel

Other|

* MusicBrainz work
* BRAHMS

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