Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Although only lasting around 50 minutes, Le Rossignol is a generous opera that gives us two sides of Stravinsky for the price of one. The first act was started in Russia in 1908, but other duties intervened and Stravinsky only completed the remaining two acts for a premiere in Paris in 1914.The gap was crucial. The Rite of Spring was written and given its riotous premiere in the meantime, so while the opening act of Le Rossignol conjures a romantic fairy tale, the music that follows ventures increasingly into a spare, modernist world.It is an interesting idea to have a performance given by a period-instrument orchestra such as Les Siècles. This recording, made in conjunction with a staged production at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, is a delight on many counts. The lightness of the instruments pays dividends in creating the enchanted aura of ancient China thanks to gossamer-light string writing and flickering sparkle in the woodwind.Much of the singing similarly floats delicately in the air. It would be hard to imagine a more ethereal opening than Cyrille Dubois, poetic French tenor of the moment, intoning the Fisherman’s haunting song to the Nightingale. In that role Sabine Devieilhe soars up to the highest notes with exquisite finesse.The opera is sung in the French translation provided at the premiere rather than the original Russian used by most other recordings. François-Xavier Roth, who stepped back from engagements after allegations of sexual harassment emerged last May, is the conductor and the cast also includes Lucile Richardot and Laurent Naouri.★★★★☆‘Stravinsky: Le Rossignol’ is released by Erato
