The Nightingale and Other Short Fables

The Nightingale and Other Short Fables is a brilliant assemblage of works by Stravinsky (Ragtime, Pribaoutki, The Fox, and others) bound together by an inspired mix of pan-Asian puppetry, opera, acrobatics—and 20,000 gallons of water.

The centerpiece of this work is Stravinsky's ingenious take on Hans Christian Andersen's tale of an emperor's curiously songful bird, The Nightingale. Lepage reimagines the opera as an aquatic fantasy, transforming the orchestra pit into a luminescent lagoon teeming with half-submerged singers, puppet-piloted boats, and lashing dragons. All the while, impervious to the commotion, the diminutive protagonist soars.

The performance is in Russian with English subtitles.