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At the seashore just before sunrise, a fisherman hears the song of the Nightingale, which causes him to forget his troubles. The fame of the bird’s song has reached the Emperor who sends his chamberlain, the cook and courtiers to the forest to invite her to sing at court. She accepts the invitation, but says that her sweetest song is heard in the forest.
At the Emperor’s palace, the Nightingale’s singing touches the ruler deeply. However when Japanese envoys arrive with a gift of a mechanical nightingale, the genuine bird flies away. Angered, the Emperor banishes the real nightingale from his realm and names the mechanical bird First Singer of the Bedside Table on the Left.
The emperor, ill and near death, is attended by the figure of Death herself. The genuine nightingale reappears, and in defiance of the imperial edict, begins to sing.
Death is greatly moved by the Nightingale's song, urging it to continue. The bird agrees, on the condition that Death gives back the Emperor his life.
Death agrees; the Emperor slowly regains his strength, and on seeing the Nightingale, offers it the post of First Singer. The Nightingale says that the Emperor's tears are reward enough, and promises to sing for him each night from dusk until dawn.
This moralizing farmyard fairy tale begins with the Cock boasting of his prowess with his hens. The hungry Fox initially deceives the Cock, twice enticing him down from his perch but each time he is rescued by his friends the Ram and the Cat.
After the Cock's second rescue, the Cat and the Ram strangle the Fox, and the three friends celebrate in dance and song.
Lothar Odinius as The Fisherman in the COC production of The Nightingale & Other Short Fables. Photo: Michael Cooper © 2009
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