The Nightingale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nightingale is a Danish fairy tale by Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen. It was written in 1844 as part of the collection New Fairy Tales (Nye Eventyr) and the original Danish title is Nattergalen. The story has been adapted for an opera and a musical, among others, and was inspired by the "Swedish Nightingale", Jenny Lind, with whom the author was in love.
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[edit] Plot summary
The Emperor of China hears that one of the most beautiful things in his own land is the song of the nightingale. He sends his courtiers to take a nightingale from the nearby forest and present her as a guest at court. The bird can communicate with the humans and agrees to come, but when the Emperor is given a robot nightingale covered with jewels, he loses interest in the real bird, which flies back to its home. The robot bird breaks down. When the Emperor is taken ill, only the song of the true nightingale can heal him.
[edit] Analysis
The most obvious interpretation of the story is that people may become fascinated by artifice and fashion, and lose track of natural beauty. It may also be a plea for the artist whose best creative work is done when he is not under contract or tied down.
[edit] Adaptations
Russian-American composer Igor Stravinsky wrote an opera based on the tale.
This adaptation of the original fairy tale has furthermore been adapted for television in an animated interpretation by filmmaker Christian Chaudet.
Kara Dalkey's The Nightingale sets the story in Heian Japan and retells it as the story of a peasant girl who becomes a court musician, only to be superseded by a bejeweled courtesan.
Charles Strouse's musical Nightingale is based on this story.
Faerie Tale Theatre did a version of the story in the 1980s, it starred Mick Jagger as the Emperor.
[edit] Pop Culture
In an episode of The Big O, R. Dorothy Wayneright sings a song telling the story of the nightingale. Read about the episode here
[edit] External links
