The Nightingale and the Rose (opera)


The Nightingale and the Rose is a chamber opera in one act by Russian composer Elena Firsova written to her own English libretto after Oscar Wilde’s story of the same name together with poetry by Christina Rossetti.

Creation and performance history

The opera was written at the request of Paul Esterházy, the director of the Ulm Theatre in Germany. Firsova created the libretto combining the text from Oscar Wilde's fairy-tale, taken from the collection The Happy Prince and Other Stories, with four poems by Christina Rossetti. This was the last work the composer completed in the Soviet Union before she moved to England in 1991. However, the idea of the staging in Germany was abandoned when Paul Esterházy suddenly left the Ulm Theatre.
The opera was produced in London. It was premiered on July 8, 1994 at the Almeida Theatre by Almeida Opera, with the singers Rachael Hallawell, Philip Sheffield, and Carol Smith, designer Julian McGowan, stage director Caroline Gawn, and conductor David Parry.

Publishers

Publishing rights:
, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, 3 percussion players, harp, celesta, strings

Synopsis

The duration of the opera is 80 minutes.

Review

The music of the opera was described by one critic as follows: "...her intricate chamber-score is so delicately, rapturously, expiringly romantic that we hearkened to it all without complaint.".

Music and sound samples

The opera culminates with the four songs of the Nightingale, settings of the four sonnets by Christina Rossetti :