Le Rossignol As told by David Hockney

The opera takes place in ancient China and begins with a fisherman singing about the beauty of the nightingale’s song. Only he and a little servant girl who works in the palace kitchen know about this wonderful bird.

The emperor of China lives in a porcelain palace. Everything about the palace is beautiful. The flowers in the garden have such a subtle perfume that little bells are hung on them, just in case you don’t notice. All the travelers who come to the kingdom write about how beautiful the palace is. And the poets who come say the most beautiful thing of all is the nightingale that sings by the seashore.

So the emperor, who only reads books in the palace – he doesn’t go out of the palace – calls the chamberlain and asks why the most wonderful thing in his kingdom is something he does not know about. The emperor’s court tries to find out about the nightingale – but the only one who knows about it is the little girl who washes dishes in the kitchen.

They ask everybody in the palace, but the response is we never heard the nightingale – we don’t know about it. Finally they find the little girl who says oh, yes, the nightingale that sings by the seashore is so beautiful. And they ask if she will take them to the nightingale. As a reward they promise to make her Lady High dishwasher and to give her 1 the privilege of watching the emperor eat.

So she takes them to the seashore and on the way they suddenly hear noises and say, “ ah that’s the nightingale.” And she says, “no, no, that is a cow mooing.” The nightingale doesn’t sound like that. Then they hear another noise and say, “ah, the nightingale, how beautiful it is!” And she says “no, no those are frogs croaking.”

Finally they get to the seashore and do hear the nightingale, but when they discover it’s just a rather plain little bird in a tree, it’s a bit disappointing. But they speak to the nightingale and ask. “Would you come and sing for the emperor”? And the bird replies, “well I do sing better by the seashore, but if you really want me to come, I will”. So the nightingale sings for the emperor who is very, very pleased. In fact, the singing brings tears to his eyes and he offers jewels to the song bird. The nightingale says, “To a singer, the tears in your eyes are jewels. I do not need the jewels.”

Just at this moment three ambassadors from the emperor of Japan arrive with a present – a mechanical nightingale. It isn’t a Sony or a Panasonic; it’s old-fashioned clockwork. They open the box and wind it up and everybody’s quite delighted. It sings away. Everyone thinks it’s quite lovely, but it’s actually garish and hideous compared to the real one. But they like it, and of course when it’s wound up it always sings the same way.

The Chinese courtiers like what they hear and they think this new nightingale is probably less trouble than the little bird. So the real nightingale flies away. When the emperor realises that the real one has left, he banishes it forever from the palace because they have a new nightingale. So he puts his toy on a post and every day it’s wound up and it sings. But of course one day, in the middle of a song, it winds down.

They can’t repair it. So now there’s no nightingale to sing and Death comes to visit the old emperor’s bed and begins to take away the dying man’s things: first his crown, then his sword of state, then his cloak.

Just at that moment the real nightingale flies in through the window and begins to sing about the gardens. And even Death is charmed by the music and says, “ Please do not stop.” But nightingale says, “Give back the cloak to the emperor.” And slowly, Death and all the ghosts from the past give back the things they’ve taken from the emperor. The

2 grateful emperor then turns to the nightingale and says, “You can be the Lord High Singer in my court again. I want you to stay,” but the little bird says, “No it’s better if I go away. I will come every night from the seashore to sing, and tell you about the beauties of your kingdom.”

All the courtiers, expecting to say farewell to their emperor in a room of darkness, are startled when they come back into his room the emperor is sitting up in his bed and he greets them cheerfully. The room fills with light and everyone is amazed.

At the end of the opera, the fisherman sings again, telling everyone to listen to the song of heaven in the voice of the nightingale. In the Stravinsky opera, of course, it’s shortened a bit, but this is Hans Anderson’s version of the story.

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