The Nightingale and the Rose (opera)

This article is about the Firsova opera. For Christopher Wheeldon's 2007 ballet, see The Nightingale and the Rose (ballet). For the original Oscar Wilde short story, see The Nightingale and the Rose.
A scene from the opera The Nightingale and the Rose by Elena Firsova

The Nightingale and the Rose (Russian: Соловей и розаSolovey i roza) is a chamber opera in one act (five scenes) by Russian composer Elena Firsova (Op. 46, 1990–1991) written to her own English libretto after Oscar Wilde’s story of the same name together with poetry by Christina Rossetti.

Creation and performance history

The opera was written at the request of Paul Esterházy, the director of the Ulm Theatre in Germany. Firsova created the libretto combining the text from Oscar Wilde's fairy-tale, taken from the collection The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888), with four poems by Christina Rossetti. This was the last work the composer completed in the Soviet Union before she moved to England in 1991. However, the idea of the staging in Germany was abandoned when Paul Esterházy suddenly left the Ulm Theatre.

The opera was produced in London. It was premiered on July 8, 1994 (with subsequent performances on July 9, 16, 18 and 20) at the Almeida Theatre by Almeida Opera, with the singers Rachael Hallawell (mezzo soprano), Philip Sheffield (tenor), and Carol Smith (soprano), designer Julian McGowan, stage director Caroline Gawn, and conductor David Parry.

Publishers

Publishing rights:

Roles

Score

Flute (=piccolo), oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, 3 percussion players (triangle, Indian jingles, whip, maracas, bamboo pipes, pagoda jingles, bass drum, suspended cymbals, bells, Chinese gong, Javanese gong, tamtam, glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone), harp, celesta, strings (1/1/1/1/1)

Synopsis

The duration of the opera is 80 minutes.

Review

The music of the opera was described by one critic as follows: "...her intricate chamber-score is so delicately, rapturously, expiringly romantic that we hearkened to it all without complaint." (David Murray, Financial Times on July 11, 1994).

Music and sound samples

The beginning of the opera
Sound sample of the beginning of the opera

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The opera culminates with the four songs of the Nightingale, settings of the four sonnets by Christina Rossetti (1830–1894):

  • 1. Remember me, when I am gone away… read the poem (see the music example below)
  • 2. Sleep, unforgotten sorrow, sleep awhile…
  • 3. So tired am I, so weary of to-day…
  • 4. Time flies, hope flags, life piles a wearied wing… see the Sonnet No.10
Sound sample of the first song of the Nightingale

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Bibliography

External links

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