The
Nightingale and Other Fables by Igor Stravinsky.
Directed by Robert Lepage. Conducted
by Alejo Perez with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. Assistant Director Sybille
Wilson. Lighting designer Etienne Boucher. Puppet designer Martin Genest.
Costume/Makeup designer Mara Gottler Set designer Carl Fillon Assistant
conductor Joshua van Konkelenberg.
Cast: Clarinet
soloist Dean Newcomb. PRIBAOUTKI Contralto Meredith Anwadi. THE TWO POEMS OF
KONSTANTIN BALMONT Soprano Yuliya Probgenyak BERCEUSES DU CHAT Meredith Anwady.
Four Russian Peasant songs Meran Bow, Eleanor Brasted, Victoria Coxhill, Ginn
Guttilla, Kristan Hardy, Sara Lambert, Fioa McArdle, Jessica Mills, Bronwyn
Palmer, Courtney Turner, Emma Woehle. THE FOX Tenors Andrew Goodwin, Owen McAusland, Bass Taras Berezhansky Baritone Nabil Suliman
THE NIGHTINGALE Nightingale-
Soprano Yuliya Zasimovna. Fisherman- Tenor Owen McAusland. Emperor -Taras
Berezhansky. Death-Meredith Arwady. Cook -Yuliya Probgenyak . Chamberlain-
Nabil Suliman. Bonze- Bass Jud Arthur, Japanese Envoy 1- Tenor Rpobert
McFarlane- Tenor 2, Bass Pelham Andrews. Japanese Envoy 3- Tenor Norbert
Hohl. Spectres -Catherine Campbell.
Rosie Hosking. Elizabeth McCall. Rachel McCall. Bronwyn Palmer. Courtney Turner.
Acrobats/puppeteers-
Martin Vaillancourt. Andreanne Joubert. Desmond Osborne, Vincent Poliquin
–Simms, Andrea Ciacci, Noam Markus.
State Opera
South Australia Chorus. Chorus Master Anthony Hunt
A co-production
of Opera National de Lyon, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Canadian Opera Company,
and Dutch National Company in collaboration with Ex Machina. Adelaide Festival. Festival Theatre. March
1-6 2024. Bookings Adelaide Festival.com.au, Ticketek 131246, Adelaide Festival
1300 313 404
Reviewed by
Peter Wilkins
Director Robert
Lepage’s interpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Other Fables is a magical kaleidoscope of musical
and theatrical ingenuity. The NIghtingale, composed by Stravinsky between 1908
and 1913 during the tsarist regime is inspired
by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The
Emperor’s Nightingale and tells the tale of a nightingale that sings for a
nasty emperor , reducing him to tears and kindness and restoring him to life in
the face of Death. It is a whimsical fable recounting the pure beauty of
authenticity over the mechanical bird, given to the Emperor of China by the
Emperor of Japan.
The Nightingale is
preceded in the first half by four pieces interspersed by the evocative tones
of the clarinet, conjuring the spritely rhythms of ragtime or the soulful notes
of mystery and wonder. Clarinetist Dean Newcomb seduces with his audience with
his mastery of the clarinet. Each item
is embellished by the use of a shadow screen to create amusing, child-like finger
puppet imagery of animals or shadow figures of acrobats or the battle between
the cat and the fox. Allegory and imagery combine, accompanied by the Adelaide
Symphony Orchestra under the baton of charismatic conductor Alejo Perez .
Lepage’s
brilliant imagination captures the wonderment and magical world of the child. In
Stravinsky’s work animals provide the characters of his narrative and inventive
composition. Director and composer create an imaginary world that finds
expression in traditional puppetry puppetry, Bunraku, Balinese shadow puppetry
and Vietnamese water puppetry. Lepage’s production delights in its visual
opulence splendidly complemented by Etienne Boucher’s lighting design and Maria
Gottler’s costumes. The State Opera South Australia Chsrus, clothed in Chinese
costumes hold aloft similarly clad puppets and rod puppet water dragons splash and cavort through the channel of
water at the front of the stage while coloratura soprano Yuliya Zasimovna sings
the song of the small nightingale that flies from her hand above the water. The sheer variety of Stravinsky’s composition
finds realization in Lepage’s lush staging. Only the placement of the action in
the water downstage obscured the view for some including the audience member
in front of me whose head kept moving from side to side to catch the action
while also reading the surtitles.
The Nightingale and Other Fables marks a departure from previous operas staged at the Adelaide
Festival. It defies comparison with Handel’s Saul, Brett Dean’s Hamlet or Mozart’s The Magic Flute or Requiem. Lepage and Perez invite their audience
to embrace the aural and visual magic of this homage to Stravinsky’s early
work. The Adelaide Festival brochure erecommends the opera to audiences 10
years of age and more. It is therefore a delightful opera for all the family to
enjoy. The allegorical and moralistic elements of fable, folk lore and fairy
tale have been beautifully brought to life in a production that captures the
imagination of the child and the intellect of the adult. It is a superb ensemble
work that is simple in its concept, and truthful to the intent of Stravinsky’s
modernist challenges to the classical traditions of the past.
The Nightingale and Other Fables may not rouse the passions and stir the conscience. It does however
mark an era of change and curiosity. In this production it revives the
essential nature of humanity, its delight in wonderment and magic and its
curiosity. It recalls the differences that exist between cultures, expressed in
Lepage’s use of Eastern influences and the multinational character of the
performers. through the inspiration of fables Stravinsky’s composition and
libretto illuminate the similarities that exist in all people. It is a work
that embodies new discovery in a changing world prior to the Russian revolution
and World War. In his interpretation of Stravinsky’s early and seminal opera Lepage
encourages all audiences to witness the The
Nightingale and Other Fables through the eyes of a child and a curious open
mind.
Photos by Andrew
Beveridge
