Stravinsky: Le Rossignol (dessay)

1 DVD - Label: Emi - 724354424298 - Le Rossignol (the Nightingale) - Stravinsky, Igor - Soprano: Nathalie Dessay - Orchestra: Orchestre De L'opera National De Paris - Conductor: James Conlon

As I watched this DVD with giddy anticipation, already a lover of Stravinsky and even his much-maligned opera "Le Rossignol" - one he started and then abandoned in order to start and complete his triptych of ballets, L'oiseau de feu, Petrouchka, Le Sacre du printemps, only to return to Rossignol as a man with a very different harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary, thus creating something of a stylistic collision between Act 1 and Acts 2 and 3 - I kept shaking my head in sweet disbelief that this production was green-lighted for director Christian Chaudet, so dazzlingly creative is his vision, his colorfully whimsical and yet artful application of CGI-based environments and chinoiserie; a visual feast beyond compare that will forever change the way you look at porcelain china :), and yet all very much in the service of Stravinsky's score. In the liner notes, Chaudet admits that the music is in no way the soundtrack to his film, but commendably, the images are the soundtrack to Stravinsky's music. And yet, the film transcends the opera genre, being in no way a literal depiction of the libretto, and for that matter could find a happy home in any families' collection of adventurous Miyazaki films (perhaps even alongside an animated Disney title like Alice in Wonderland). And all of this is to say nothing of Natalie Dessay's ethereally beautiful Nightingale, with fine contributions from all of the cast, including a well-paced and perfectly colorful rendering of the score by James Conlon and the Orchestre de l'Opera National de Paris. Bravo!