Le Rossignol et l’Empereur de Chine - Baroque music and shadow theatre
Once upon a time there was a fabulous nightingale, a marvellous musician who sang in the woods to warm the hearts of those who came to listen. The whole world knew of its existence, except for his own neighbour, the Emperor of China, whose beautiful porcelain palace adjoined the wood where the bird lived. One day, when he discovered its existence in a book, he asked his courtiers to bring him the bird. After several disappointments, they finally found it, although they thought its plumage was ordinary. The nightingale agreed to come and sing at the Emperor's court and worked wonders until the day when the Emperor of Japan offered the Emperor of China a mechanical nightingale... With a real nightingale, you never know when it will come, but with a mechanical nightingale everything is planned.
