Opera
The Nightingale and Other Short Fables
Presented by the Canadian Opera Company and BAM
By Igor Stravinsky
Conducted by Johannes Debus
Directed by Robert Lepage
A theatrical alchemist who combines music, movement, and song
into invariably mesmerizing productions, Robert Lepage
(Lipsynch, 2009 Next Wave; the Metropolitan Opera's new
Ring cycle) returns to BAM with The Nightingale and
Other Short Fables, a brilliant assemblage of works by
Stravinsky (Ragtime, Pribaoutki, The
Fox, and others) bound together by an inspired mix of
pan-Asian puppetry, opera, acrobatics-and 20,000 gallons of
water.
The centerpiece of this work is Stravinsky's ingenious take on
Hans Christian Andersen's tale of an emperor's curiously songful
bird, The Nightingale. Lepage reimagines the opera as an
aquatic fantasy, transforming the orchestra pit into a luminescent
lagoon teeming with half-submerged singers, puppet-piloted boats,
and lashing dragons. All the while, impervious to the commotion,
the diminutive protagonist soars.
Set design by Carl Fillion
Costume design by Mara Gottler
Puppet design by Michael Curry
Lighting design by Etienne Boucher
Co-produced with Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Opéra national de
Lyon, and Netherlands Opera in collaboration with Ex Machina