Live from Aix 2010: The Nightingale Sings

This article is the third in a series on the 2010 Aix festival. Read the other articles in our Culture section.

Charm is out in full force for the Aix Festival’s delightful evening with Igor Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Other Fables, a program of short works from the composer’s early “Russian period”. Canadian director Robert Lepage has staged the show using a brilliantly colorful fairytale mix of marionettes, traditional Vietnamese water puppets, live acrobats, shadow theater and other mostly Asian theatrical magic. For starters, the orchestra is on the stage, and the orchestra pit is a deep pond of water.

The Stravinsky selections range from the jazzy 1918 Ragtime for 11 instruments to vocal settings for two brief Russian poems; four Priabaoutki (Pleasant Songs, or Nonsense Rhymes, depending on the translation) from 1914; and the 15-minute, 1916 Renard (Fox), based on a popular folk tale about a fox, a rooster, a cat and a goat.

The Nightingale, which premiered at the Paris Opera in 1914, is a short three-act “lyric tale” based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the same name: the Emperor of China, captivated by the nightingale’s song, invites the bird to live in his palace. All is well until the Japanese Ambassador arrives with a gift, a marvelous mechanical bird. The real nightingale is forgotten, and flies away unnoticed. But when the Emperor falls ill, haunted by the specter of Death, the real nightingale faithfully returns and the beauty of her song convinces Death to depart. (The story is said to have been inspired by Andersen’s infatuation with soprano Jenny Lind, who was popularly known as the Swedish nightingale.)

Miniature boats with lighted lanterns float on the orchestra-pit pond, manned by puppets that are often manipulated by the singers-standing waist-deep in the water-who sing the puppets’ roles. It’s slightly confusing to describe, but totally convincing when seen, and an enormous pleasure to watch.

Like the first part of the evening, Nightingale too is an ensemble work, sung in Russian by a largely Russian cast, with the notable exceptions of Lithuanian tenor Edgaras Montvidas as The Fisherman and Syrian baritone Nabil Suliman as The Chamberlain. Soprano Olga Peretyatko is a spunky and lilting Nightingale, and it all comes together under the baton of Kazushi Ono conducting the Opéra de Lyon orchestra and chorus. The production crew won a well-deserved ovation on opening night, and more than merits its share of the spotlight: sets (and pond) by Carl Fillion, puppets designed by Michael Curry, puppet choreography by Martin Genest, costumes and makeup by Mara Gottler, lighting by Etienne Boucher.

A coproduction with the Canadian Opera Company, the Nederlandse Opera and the Opéra National de Lyon, The Nightingale and Other Fables has already been seen in Toronto, and moves on to Lyon and Amsterdam in the fall.