Trio Philomèle – Le Rossignol et l’Empereur de Chine
Junior 3+
A musical and poetic tale set in ancient China
Everything begins when the Emperor of China discovers, to his great surprise, that a nightingale, celebrated throughout the world for its song, is hiding in his garden. He sends his servants to find the bird and invites it to his palace. Deeply moved by the purity of its song, he locks the nightingale in a golden cage, wishing to keep it jealously close to him. But one day he receives a gift from the Emperor of Japan: a mechanical nightingale adorned with rubies and diamonds, said to sing just as beautifully as the real one, and to do so without ever growing tired. However realistic and alluring it may be, can this mechanical nightingale ever match the natural sincerity of the first?
A multidisciplinary performance combining contemporary music, theatre, and visual arts, “The Nightingale and the Emperor” offers an immersive journey into the imaginary world of ancient China from the very first notes. Building on the original text by Hans Christian Andersen, harp and flute intertwine and brilliantly interpret the musical score by Lionel Bord (1976, France), evoking the nightingale’s enchanting song. A tale of the struggle between life and death, the ephemeral and the eternal, poetic illusion and reality, this sensitive fable also raises, in its own way, questions about the place of the artist and of living art in our society.
Flagey, Jeunesses Musicales de Bruxelles
