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Le Rossignol 1969

August 1 - 15, 1969

Based on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen…

…a nasty Chinese Emperor is reduced to tears and made kind by a small grey bird.

(presented as a double-bill with Help! Help! The Globolinks)

Music By
Igor Stravinsky
Libretto By
Igor Stravinsky and S. Mitousoff after the Hans Christian Andersen tale

Synopsis

Scene I

By the seaside, a fisherman sits waiting to hear the Nightingale who delights him every night with her song. The Emperor’s cook arrives, with courtiers of the Emperor of China, in search of the Nightingale. When she appears, they offer her a formal invitation to sing for the Emperor at court. Although she will miss her forest, the Nightingale obeys the Emperor’s request, going off to the palace in a procession headed by the cook.

Scene II

The palace of the Emperor is ablaze with lanterns decorated with little flowers. The cook, now Chief-High-Cook, describes to the court the little bird whose singing makes everyone weep. The Emperor arrives, announced by the Chamberlain, and the Nightingale begins to sing. So charmed is the monarch that he offers the bird the Order of the Golden Slipper, but the Nightingale sings only to give pleasure, and refuses the honor. Just then, three envoys from Japan offer the Emperor a mechanical nightingale and as the mechanical song begins, the real nightingale flies away. Insulted that she has flown away, the Emperor banishes her forever.

Scene III

Sometime later, the Emperor is gravely ill. Death sits at the foot of the bed holding the imperial crown and sceptre, and ghosts of the Emperor’s good and bad deeds surround him. The Emperor calls for music and the banished Nightingale answers the call. Even Death is conquered by the loveliness of the song, and when the courtiers arrive, instead of finding the Emperor dead, they find him risen from his bed. As the lyric tale ends, the fisherman bids that all acknowledge, in the song of the Nightingale, the voice of heaven.

Artists

Jeanette Scovotti

Soprano

The Nightingale

Stuart Burrows

Tenor

The Fisherman

Doris Yarick

Soprano

The Cook

Ray Hickman

Bass

The Chamberlain

James Morris headshot

James Morris

Bass-baritone

The Bonze

Peter Harrower

bass

Emperor of China

Sidney Johnson

Tenor

1st Japanese Envoy

Paul Rohrbaugh

Bass

2nd Japanese Envoy

Richard Roytek

Tenor

3rd Japanese Envoy

Eve Gentry

Dancer

The Mechanical Nightingale

Jean Kraft

Mezzo-soprano

Death

Robert Baustian

Conductor

Bliss Hebert

Director

Willa Kim headshot

Willa Kim

Costume Designer

Scenic Designer

Georg Schreiber

Lighting Designer

Hugh Johnson

Chorus Master