 NIGHTINGALE
Book, music and lyrics by Charles Strouse: Based on the Hans Christian
Andersen story
Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London - December 18, 1982.
Story:
Once in China there was an Emperor so powerful and so protected that
he was never able to be close to others and was unaware of the natural
beauty of the world around him.
One day he heard of a nightingale which lived in the forest and which
sang so beautifully that all the peasants were charmed. He commanded a
lovely young palace maid to bring the nightingale to him.
The maid led the court to the forest where the nightingale lived and
it was captured. The Nightingale became an immediate success at court
and for a while she was the Emperor's best friend and most prized possession.
But her popularity soon waned and she became unhappy without her freedom.
Finally she was replaced by technology - a mechanical bird - and so she
escaped. Nobody, not even the Emperor, noticed that the Nightingale had
flown away.
When the Emperor realised that the Nightingale was no longer by his side,
and that you can't always posses what you love the most, he decided to
cut himself off from the rest of the world with work. He became dejected
and ill and was finally confronted by death.
But the power of beauty and innocent love (of the palace maid) triumphed
over death.
The Emperor and the maid and the Nightingale, lived happily ever after.
Charles Strouse
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