FULL LE ROSSIGNOL The complete Stravinsky Moscow 2023 Olga Kozlova, Maria Barakova, Julia Nikanorova, Alexey Tatarintsev
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Le Rossignol
- Composer: Stravinsky Igor
- Libretto: Stepan Mitussov, Igor Stravinsky based on the Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen
- Venue & Opera Company: Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow, Russia
- Recorded: November 18, 2023
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Olga Kozlova, Maria Barakova, Julia Nikanorova, Alexey Tatarintsev, Valentin Khmelyov, Andrey Averyanov, Igor Podoplelov, Konstantin Suchkov, Konstantin Fedotov, Alexey Repin
- Conductor: Philipp Chizhevsky
- Orchestra: Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra
- Chorus: Yurlov Russian State Academic Choir
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Moscow Philharmonic Society
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
Program:
Stravinsky “Three Poems from Japanese Lyrics” for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble (1913)
Opera “Le rossignol” (1908–1914)
Ballet “Le Sacre du printemps” (1913)
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.
Synopsis
Time: Ancient times
Place: China.
The Fisherman acts as commentator on the story’s events.[10]
Act 1
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
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
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.
Quoted from Wikipedia