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Sensuous Lyricism

Stravinsky's 'Le Rossignol' -
reviewed by
ROBERT ANDERSON

'... both wondrous and distracting.'

Stravinsky: Le Rossignol - Natalie Dessay - A film by Christian Chaudet. © 2005 Virgin Classics

This mini-opera was started before The Firebird and finished after The Rite of Spring. Stravinsky's protagonist (apart from the chirruping nightingale) was a Chinese fisherman. The maker of this film, Christian Chaudet, has preferred a little boy, adorable enough to be adopted at once by any wandering Madonna (I mean the variably undressed pop-star rather than the Mother of God). The work now becomes his waking dream, with his grandfather busy making pots that turn during the child's fascinating gaze into Chinese porcelain vessels of incalculable value but capable also of housing any of the work's characters as somewhat hazy inhabitants.

Vsevolod Grivnov as the fisherman. Screenshot © 2005 Agat Films & Cie/ ARTE France / Mikros image
Vsevolod Grivnov as the fisherman. Screenshot © 2005 Agat Films & Cie/ ARTE France / Mikros image

 

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Copyright © 30 November 2006 Robert Anderson, London UK

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